“He hit me with two truncheons on the stairs, where there are no cameras.” With these words, Cristian Shiro De Luca, a prisoner and civil party in the trial, testified about the violence he suffered in the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Caserta) on 6 April 2020. The maxi-trial, which sees 105 defendants, including prison officers, resumed after the summer break in the prison's bunker courtroom.
De Luca identified some of the officers involved in the beatings and directly accused Anna Rita Costanzo, who at the time of the events was a high-ranking official of the penitentiary police.
The witness stated: “From the corridor of my cell, the guards made me go down some stairs reserved for them, while they beat me. When we got to the second floor, I saw the commissioner at the rotunda. She came over, called me a 'bastard' and hit me with two truncheons in the place where there were no cameras.”
The charges against Costanzo are particularly relevant, since several testimonies already collected in court have claimed that the commissioner had neither the truncheon nor had she actively participated in the violence against prisoners.
Even the Carabinieri Marshal Medici, in charge of the investigation, reported that Costanzo had not taken part in the violence.
Only a few witnesses, such as Ciro Motti, claimed to have seen the commissioner use the truncheon, albeit in different circumstances. Motti stated that Costanzo used the truncheon in the social room, wearing a helmet, but the images shown in court by Costanzo's lawyer, Luca Tornatora, contradicted this version, showing the official without a helmet and present in the room for a few seconds.
Although the videos seem to contradict part of De Luca's story, the prisoner maintained his version, even though other images show the commissioner at the roundabout without a truncheon, in the company of a female officer, whom De Luca never mentioned in his testimony.
Article published on 11 September 2024 - 21:35
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