On February 26, 94 migrants died in the sinking of the Cutro. For this massacre, a Turkish man, Sami Fuat, aged 50, and two Pakistanis, Khalid Arslan, aged 25, and Ishaq Hassnan, aged 22, are on trial, while a fourth alleged smuggler, Ufuk Gun, aged 28. Turk, opted for an abbreviated trial and will be tried today by the Crotone Court magistrate. Yesterday the undersecretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, Alfredo Mantovano, instructed the State Attorney General to form a civil party, representing Palazzo Chigi and the Ministry of the Interior. The hearing in which the civil parties are expected to meet is also scheduled for today. The Presidency of the Council explains that “the decision was taken taking into account the extreme gravity of the events, which resulted in the death of at least 94 migrants and a large number of missing people”. It is useful to remember that the defendants, in concert with each other, are accused of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, negligent shipwreck and death as a result of the crime of complicity. The alleged smugglers are accused of having asked for between 7,500 and 9,500 dollars from migrants who, having left Turkey, crossed the Aegean aboard the schooner “Summer Love”. The backpack full of money would have disappeared in the wreck.
The hearing was postponed due to the issue of compensation for the families of the shipwreck victims. Today, in fact, the Court of Crotone will rule on the request for exclusion from the trial presented by Consap, a state body wholly owned by the Ministry of Economy, which created the Road Victims Guarantee Fund which aims to cover compensation for victims also for nautical accidents occurring with vessels that require insurance. In a previous hearing, one of the lawyers who serve the families of the wreck victims presented the request for action against the traffic victims’ guarantee fund. And the criminal panel chaired by judge Edoardo D’Ambrosio accepted the request. On November 15th, however, the Fund – represented by lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, senator of the League – appeared, but opposed the subpoena and requested its exclusion from the trial, arguing that the sunken vessel had not been used for recreation or used for public transport and therefore cannot be subject to the insurance code which also regulates the intervention of the road accident guarantee fund.
The opposition immediately attacked the government, claiming that it had no intention of compensating the victims’ families. A controversy interrupted by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi who, during his visit to Crotone on November 17th, assured: «The State will do everything in its power to compensate the victims of this dramatic and tragic catastrophe that occurred in February». According to the head of the Ministry of the Interior, Consap’s request “is a formal fact, one of those procedural exceptions that are made in a judicial context, but the State does not look the other way in any way”. This is just the first procedural line relating to the Cutro massacre. There is also a second that seeks to determine whether or not there was any responsibility for the failure to provide assistance on the part of the Italian authorities. In this case there are six suspects, three of which are officers and non-commissioned officers of the air and naval departments of the Guardia di Finanza of Vibo Valentia, Crotone and Taranto.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
