January 11th 1944 – The execution of Count Galeazzo Ciano.

Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law and the former foreign minister, was led in front of a firing squad in the prison here today and shot for treason. Four other fascist ex-leaders were executed with him and 13 others were sentenced in their absence on 8 January.
Ciano’s “crime” was to vote with his fellow-Fascists to oust Mussolini from office last July.
Ciano was dismissed from his post by the new government of Italy put in place after his father-in-law was overthrown. Ciano, his Wife Edda and their three children fled to Germany on 28 August 1943 in fear of being arrested by the new Italian government.
The Germans turned him over to Mussolini’s administration. He was then formally arrested on charges of treason. Under German and Fascist pressure, Mussolini had Ciano imprisoned before he was tried and found guilty.
After the Verona trial and sentence, on 11 January 1944, Ciano was executed by a firing squad along with 4 others (Emilio De Bono, Luciano Gottardi, Giovanni Marinelli and Carlo Pareschi) who had voted for Mussolini’s ousting.
As a further humiliation, the condemned men were tied to chairs and shot in the back, though according to some accounts, Ciano managed to twist his chair around at the last minute to face the firing squad before uttering his final words, “Long live Italy!”