Two Carabinieri notes on the state
of health of Stefano Cucchi, a Roman draughtsman who died after
an alleged police beating, were modified so as to be potentially
false, a trial of five Carabinieri, three of them for
manslaughter, heard Tuesday.
The Carabinieri who wrote the two notes, Gianluca Colicchio
and Francesco Di Sano, declined to fully accept their content
under questioning Tuesday.
On March 20 a witness in the trial told the court that Cucchi
told him in detention that the cops had "enjoyed themselves with
him".
Luigi Laina' said he spoke to Cucchi at the medical centre in
Rome's Regina Coeli Prison on the night of October 16-17 2009, a
few days after Cucchi was picked up on minor drugs charges.
"Stefano told me that the Carabinieri 'enjoyed themselves'
with him. He was so swollen he looked like bag-pipes, he should
not have been taken to jail in that condition," said Laina'.
"He was in bad shape, he was puffy, he had bruises on his
face and cheekbones, he was purple, he was losing blood from an
ear," Laina' went on.
"I brought him a coffee but he didn't even manage to swallow.
When I saw his back it was a purple skeleton: he looked like a
beaten dog, stuff you wouldn't even see at Auschwitz. I have
never seen an inmate taken to a cell in that condition.
"Stefano told me two plain-clothes Carabinieri beat him in
the first barracks he was taken to...they wanted to make him
talk, they wanted to know where the drugs had come from but he
didn't talk, he didn't want to be a snitch."
Cucchi's sister Ilaria, who has been campaigning tirelessly
for justice for her brother, said "the witness Laina''s account
is dramatic from an emotional standpoint, I see again my
brother's character and his way of being and above all his
suffering, which was hidden for so many years.
"For years they spoke of slight injuries, but he was
seriously ill, and that pain increased hour after hour until he
died.
"It was all abstract in all these years, it seemed as if my
brother had died without a reason. From today we have started to
understand what actually happened".
The trial of the five Carabinieri started on October 13.
Cucchi died in a custodial hospital wing on the night
between October 22 and 23, 2009, a week after being picked up
on the drugs rap.
His body showed signs he had sustained a brutal beating at
some point during his detention, and an autopsy revealed he was
severely dehydrated, had two broken vertebrae and internal organ
damage.
Cucchi's parents said he was in perfectly good health the
day he was arrested, but appeared at a court hearing the next
day with black eyes and his face covered with bruises.
Ilaria Cucchi said "now the moment of truth has arrived".
A new witness said last year that Cucchi "couldn't stand up"
in his cell after his alleged beating.
On July 10 a Rome judge indicted the five Carabinieri police
over Cucchi's death in a custodial wing of a Rome hospital.
Three of the Carabinieri are accused of involuntary
manslaughter.
They allegedly beat the young draughtsman after his arrest on
October 15, 2009.
The other two are accused of calumny and making false
declarations.
Cucchi's sister Ilaria hailed the indictments, saying
"finally those responsible for the death of my brother, the same
people who for eight years his behind their uniforms, will go to
trial and will be called to answer for what they did".
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