MILAN – He had waited for his colleague outside the hotel, the same one where they both worked, to attack him at dawn with a series of stab wounds, some of which were lethal: to the chest and neck.
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Then the escape, while the victim, Hani Fouad Abdelghaffar Nasra, 51 years old of Egyptian origins, was urgently transported to Niguarda in very serious conditions.
The attacker is Emanuele De Maria, a 35-year-old Neapolitan, detained in the Bollate prison with a daytime work permit, already convicted of the murder of a young Tunisian prostitute in 2016.
The shocking interview: “Work makes me free”
A few months ago, De Maria had given an interview to the program Confessioni Reporter (Mediaset), filmed right in the lobby of the hotel where he worked. In jacket and tie, he had said he was grateful for the opportunity: “Being in contact with customers from different cultures makes me free”, he had declared, defining Bollate “a prison that restores dignity”. A portrait in stark contrast to the man who is now once again on the run, with a new crime on his shoulders.
In the interview, De Maria spoke about his conviction for voluntary homicide and his experience in prison. “I have been in Bollate for three years and I still have six and a half years to go before the end of my sentence,” he said, telling of “a rather troubled path because I was detained in the Secondigliano facility in Naples, where the prison regime is very different, you are easily thrown into an overcrowded cell and you are somewhat forgotten there. Bollate is a penitentiary institution where, in my opinion, human dignity is completely restored.
So Bollate provides reintegration, it gives confidence, it also gives you self-esteem which in any case also greatly caresses the soul, it is fundamental”.
A past as a murderer
De Maria is no stranger to crime reporting. In 2016 he killed Oumaima Rached, 23 year old Tunisian, by slitting her throat at the former Zagarella hotel in Castel Volturno. Arrested two years later in Germany, where he had taken refuge, he was transferred to Bollate after his final conviction. Here, thanks to the semi-liberty regime, he worked as a receptionist in a facility on Via Napo Torriani, near the Central Station. But yesterday he broke the rules: he didn't show up for work and didn't return to prison. Shortly after, at dawn today, he attacked his colleague, a bartender at the Hotel Berna.
The victim between life and death
Abdelghaffar Nasra underwent emergency surgery and is now in intensive care, intubated and sedated. His condition remains critical. The reasons for the attack are still unclear: perhaps a fight between colleagues.
But there is another mystery that complicates the picture: the disappearance of a hotel employee, Arachchilage Dona Chamila Wijesuriya, a 50-year-old originally from Sri Lanka. The woman, whose disappearance was reported by her husband and son to the Carabinieri of Cinisello Balsamo, has not been heard from since yesterday. The police are investigating a possible connection with the stabbing.
The hunt for the fugitive
De Maria, 1,73 m tall, with short hair, black eyes and arms tattooed with a Latin phrase, is being sought extensively. The investigation is focusing on surveillance cameras and trains, while the police and carabinieri are questioning witnesses and colleagues. But at the moment there are no traces of him or the missing woman.
Article published on May 10, 2025 - 18:30 pm
