Poggioreale Riot, the Lawyer: 'Tomorrow I Hope to Bring a Doctor to Prison to Visit My Client'

Naples. "I have not had the opportunity to meet my client, it seems that they are administering an IV to him, once he has been transferred to the San Paolo ward." These are the words of Celestino Gentile, lawyer of Luciano De Luca, the 28 year old prisoner, from the prison of Poggioreale, in Naples For which yesterday an entire ward protested, with a riot, demanding his hospitalization. Tomorrow, the lawyer says, "I will return to the prison to check on his health and see if they're administering the necessary treatment." "Perhaps, if necessary, I could even bring in a doctor, appointed by the family," he emphasizes, "to have him examined." "The point," he explains, "is that, according to the regulations, authorization from the prison administration is required. Without it, a doctor cannot be brought in. The strange and worrying thing," he says, "is that, as his mother explained to me, he was already showing signs of serious illness on Friday." protest by prisoners In the same ward where the 28-year-old was held, "it seems to have been triggered by the fact that he was ill and there were delays in getting help." "My son is a skeleton. When I saw him on Friday, he was all purple around his eyes. I can't explain what he's going through." Tina is the mother of Luciano De Luca, an inmate in Poggioreale prison in Naples. Yesterday, an entire ward protested, demanding his hospitalization. She's crying and worried about her son's health. "He made a mistake, he has to pay for it, and he's doing so," she says, "but he shouldn't pay with his life." "They told me the tests were good," she says. "When I asked how he was this morning, the prison guards said, 'We think he's fine.'" In the cell where he was being held, in the Salerno wing, "there were 15 of them." "He fainted several times," his mother continues, "and another inmate in the same cell screamed to be heard, to ask for help." "Today," she continues, "they were transferred as punishment, but those people only wanted to help my son." The conditions of the inmates in the prison "are terrible."