A case of allegedly fatal police
brutality that has been likened to the 2009 death of Rome
surveyor Stefano Cucchi has been sent back to a Messina court by
the Italian supreme court.
Cucchi's sister Ilaria, now a leftwing MP; said she hoped the
case of Sicilian man Enrico Lombardo, a 42-year-old with mental
health issues who died of multiple injuries after allegedly
being pinned down by a Carabiniere for over 20 minutes, would
now be reopened.
"The Cassation has granted the request of the family that has
been fighting to get truth and justice since 2019," she said,
adding that this provided "faint hope that the case will be
reopened to establish the extremely grievous responsibilities".
The official cause of death was a heart attack due to
self-inflicted concussion but Cucchi, Amnesty International and
the defendants' rights group A Buon Diritto say Lombardo was
immobilised like George Floyd and also badly beaten with a
truncheon.
A judge shelved the case but the family appealed and
have shown reporters photos "that show a body tortured by
bruises, lesions and wounds in all the parts of the body.
"He was covered in blood," they said.
Senator Cucchi, who three years ago got justice for her
brother's death, said "can't we call this torture?"
The Cassation Court ruled to send the case back to Messina on
Monday.
Lombardo's ex-wife, who had called the cops because she had felt
threatened by him on the night of his death, told reporters:
"Our cry for justice has been heard".
Amnesty International said "it may now be possible to establish
responsibilities for what happened".
A Buon Diritto Chair Luigi Manconi, a former leftwing MP, said
"it is in the interests of all citizens that a further probe is
carried out," stressing that "the most rigorous guarantees for
those who find themselves in the custody of men of the State
during an arrest is a precious good for democracy".
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