This summer when some policemen were convicted of murder for the absurd deaths of Riccardo Rasman, Federico Aldrovandi and Gabriele Sandri seemed possible that was ending the impunity that so far in this country has always allowed the police to not respond to anything even when they commit terrible crimes.
The story of Stefano Cucchi too, could mark the end of impunity, because at least for the first time all the newspapers and the tv had spoken of him. But if the three cases mentioned at the beginning were too big for the perpetrators to go unscated, although the sentences were ridiculous compared to those that ordinary citizens would receive for similar offenses, the jail remains a dark area in Italy. In fact, the three cases occurred outside, but what happens in prisons remains unpunished.
The death of Aldo Bianzino was filed as a natural one, although there is nothing natural about internal injuries to the liver after a brain aneurysm. Filed now even the death of Manuel Eliantonio probably beaten to death by someone in the prison of Genoa, as we saw clearly from his body, reduced as the one of Stefano Cucchi. But for the prosecutor in Genoa Manuel died of gas inhalation. This method is a major cause of death in Italian prisons. Or rather, is the perfect excuse to explain, when necessary, the suspicious deaths. The signs on the body of Manuel would have happened post mortem. His stories of beatings and violence to the family before he died, only fantasies.
The cases of Aldo and Manuel are unfortunately only a drop in the ocean. In prison, you die easily, and nobody ever really investigate to find out why. More than 1550 cases since 2000. A minority were actually elderly or sick, all the others were filed as suicides and deaths by natural causes.
There are other open cases, as Stefano Cucchi, Marcello Lonzi and "suicide" unexplained Niki Aprile Gatti, only one of many suspicious deaths in the prison of Florence. The case of Manuel is a small blurb in a few newspapers, as happened to Aldo and Niki, while many others, in prison or concentration camps for immigrants, hardly appear on a website. That's the reason why they die by "suicide" or "natural causes". Because nobody knows, nobody cares. Perhaps for Stefano Cucchi the story will be different, because he was noticed by the media, but all the above stories do not leave much room for hope. In jail the culprits are always the inmates, by definition, even when they aren't.
Francesco Defferrari
MY ADDRESS
A match as a pen
Blood on the floor as ink
The forgotten gauze cover as paper
But what should I write?
I might just manage my address
The ink is strange; it clots
I write to you from a prison
in Greece
Alexandros Panagoulis, written in military prison of Boiati, 5 June 1971 - after a beating
Greece during the regime of the colonels.
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