ROME: The body of Italy’s controversial king Victor Emmanuel III returned to Italy on Sunday, amid a row over where the monarch who abetted dictator Benito Mussolini should be buried. Victor Emmanuel, who ruled from 1900 until his abdication on May 9, 1946, died in exile in Egypt. Permission for his body to be brought back was granted to the House of Savoy by the president, and his remains were flown in from Egypt on Sunday, historian Aldo Mola told AFP. The king will be buried in the family’s mausoleum, the Sanctuary of Vicoforte in northern Italy, according to Mola, who has helped organise the royal’s return. When the Blackshirts marched on Rome in 1922, Victor Emmanuel had not only refused the government request to declare martial law, he then handed over power to Mussolini.

Source: New Strait Times December 17, 2017 14:26 UTC