ROME (Reuters) - An Italian appeals court reduced on Thursday the prison terms imposed on two American tourists who were originally given life sentences for the 2019 murder of a policeman in a case that shook Italy.

       The court ruled that Finnegan Lee Elder, who was 19 at the time, should serve 24 years in jail for having stabbed Mario Cerciello Rega to death in central Rome.

       His friend Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, then 18, was handed a 22-year term. He did not handle the murder weapon during the attack but was tussling with another police officer.

       The pair said they acted in self defence because they thought the two policemen, who were not in uniform at the time, were thugs out to get them after a botched attempt to buy drugs.

       (Reporting by Marco Carta; Editing by Crispian Balmer)