Rome, October 5 (RHC)-- An Italian court has sentenced a man to 12 years in jail for shooting and wounding six African migrants in a racially motivated attack in the central city of Macerata. Twenty-nine year-old Luca Traini went on the shooting spree on February 3rd in what he said was revenge for the death of a young Italian woman allegedly killed and dismembered by a Nigerian man.

Traini failed to kill anyone during the attack, and publicly apologized in court for his actions: “I am sorry for the injuries I caused. While in prison, I have understood that the color of one's skin has nothing to do with anything.”

The incident comes as rising racist attacks shake Italy and other countries of Europe. In Rome, the anti-immigration League has emerged as the second-largest party in parliament and has gone on to forge a coalition government with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

League leader Matteo Salvini is the new interior minister and has launched a crackdown on immigration since entering the coalition government last month, closing Italian ports to migrant rescue boats and urging officials to apply tougher rules on asylum requests.

Salvini has come under fire from human rights groups and factions within the Roman Catholic Church for his uncompromising stance on migration, with a popular Christian magazine comparing him to Satan on its front cover last week.