Italy PM blasts ultras for disrespecting Anne Frank

Rome Oct 25 (IANS/AKI) Italy s centre-Left Premier Paolo Gentiloni has slammed fans from Serie A soccer side Lazio who posted stickers of Jewish Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank in a Roma shirt along with anti-Semitic slogans.

"There are groups of ultra football fans who think they can make fun of the personage of Anne Frank " Gentiloni said during a visit to the northeast Veneto region.

"What happened is unbelievable and unacceptable and it cannot be brushed off or undervalued " he added.

Rome s Jewish community immediately protested the incident during Lazio s 3-0 weekend win over Cagliari in Rome at the weekend.

The stickers were stuck on glass barriers inside the Roma South Curve stand at Rome s Olympic Stadium because Lazio s own North Curve had been closed following racist chants.

The offensive Anne Frank photomontage first appeared across the Italian capital in 2013.

--IANS/AKI
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