Luca Attanasio, bodyguard Vittorio Iacovacci and their driver Mustapha Milambo were killed during a botched kidnapping on a road in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as they were heading toward a World Food Program (WFP) project.
Rome prosecutors had requested a trial for Rocco Leone and Mansour Luguru Rwagaza, who at the time of the attack were respectively the deputy chief of the WFP in DRC and a security officer, accusing the pair of negligence in organizing the trip. However, Judge Marisa Mosetti ruled on Tuesday that as employees of the United Nations, the two men enjoyed diplomatic immunity and cannot therefore be tried.
The prosecutors said they would appeal. A Democratic Republic of Congo military court last year sentenced six men to life in prison for the killings.
Eastern DRC has been beset by violence for decades as rival militias fight government troops and each other for control of land and resources.
Kidnappings and attacks on aid convoys had been on the rise at the time of the assault on Attanasio and his entourage.
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