Ousseynou Sy, the
Senegalese-Italian bus driver who on Wednesday hijacked a
schoolbus with 51 kids aboard and later torched it near Milan,
said he did so because he had heard "the voices of children
dying in the Mediterranean" and "asking him to do something
sensational to stop it happening".
In questioning Friday, Sy said he wanted to carry out a
"demonstrative action and have not a national impact but a
maximum international impact," his lawyer Davide Lacchini said.
Lacchi said Sy "praised Italian policy on migrations" and his
message was "no one should come from Africa to Europe".
Sy showed "clear signs of (mental) imbalance" during the
questioning in jail and also made "invocations", Lacchini said,
without specifying what kind of invocations the bus driver made.
The preliminary investigations judge, however, said he had
not seen any signs of mental imbalance.
Milan prosecutors on Friday requested that Sy be kept in
jail, arguing there is a danger he could try to something
similar if released.
The interior ministry has released a circular letter telling
police forces to beef up checks on driving licences after this
week's school bus hijacking in northern Italy.
Sy, a 47-year-old Italian national originally from
Senegal, hijacked a bus at Crema near Cremona on Wednesday and
doused it with petrol before torching it after police had helped
51 kids out of the back window at San Donato Milanese near
Milan.
Sy said he acted out of anger at the Italian government's
migration policy.
The circular letter by Interior Ministry Chief of Staff
Matteo Piantedosi calls for the scrupulous application of the
law concerning the issue and renewal of licences for drivers of
vehicles that transport people as well as demanding more checks.
Sy hid the fact that he had had his licence suspended for
drink driving by going on sick leave, sources said.
Italian police chief Franco Gabrielli said the police
response to the emergency had shown that "the system worked".
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