Frattamaggiore. He defended himself with tenacity and determination: “I didn’t set Nicola on fire, I feel unjustly accused.”
Thus the 39 year old Pasquale Pezzella before the investigating judge of the court of Naples North Daniele Grunieri, during the hearing to validate the arrest warrant issued by the investigators who accuse him of attempted voluntary homicide aggravated by the premeditation of Nicola Liguori.
A serious accusation contested in relation to the violent attack suffered on the evening of June 30th in Frattamaggiore by 36-year-old Nicola Liguori, doused with flammable liquid while he was on a bench and was making a video call to his girlfriend. Liguori is still in reserved prognosis at the hospital in Bari with burns on 45% of his body.
Pezzella, assisted by theLawyer Fernando Pellino (also present the prosecutor of Naples North, Albert Of The Valley), responded to the investigating judge's questions by rejecting all charges. “I have known Nicola Liguori since we were children,” Pezzella said, “because we live in the same neighborhood, we greet each other, but I can’t say we are friends.
The evening of the incident, when I saw the flames from the window of my house, I went downstairs and together with another person I put out the fire that still involved part of the bench; at that moment however Nicola was no longer there”.
The investigating judge did not ask Pezzella any questions about the alleged motive, the theft of a scooter, which was allegedly indicated by Liguori's brother, to whom the latter had given instructions before losing consciousness.
Lawyer Pellino argued that the arrest was illegitimate, since Pezzella was arrested while he was alone at home and there was no danger of escape, and there was no serious evidence of guilt; the lawyer therefore asked the investigating judge not to issue a precautionary measure.
And he underlined the presence of a single declaratory source, namely Liguori's brother, Biagio, who helped the 36-year-old by collecting a few words in which the victim spoke of "Pasquale", and of the theft of a scooter.
That name, Pasquale, pronounced several times by Liguori and that other people would have heard so much as to be influenced, according to Pezzella's lawyer, when they made statements to the State Police.
The defense attorney also pointed out the contradictions in the statements made, especially regarding the motive; the same mother of Liguori he reported various versions, the one about the moped but also the one according to which Liguori was set on fire because he was causing a disturbance while talking on his cell phone on the bench.
La Liguori's girlfriend he said he saw, while he was on a video call with the victim, a man with light skin and no beard or goatee, who instead pezzella ha; the latter is a carpenter married with four children who is carrying out, with a regular contract, a job in Milan, and last week he had gone down to Frattamaggiore for a few days. Pellino maintained that he is therefore not a violent person.
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