Aversa, the murder of Emanuele Di Caterino: after 13 years and 13 trials, the shadow of acquittal looms.

Acersa – Thirteen years of waiting, thirteen trials, and a nightmare that, instead of ending, threatens to turn into the most atrocious hoax. There may be no one to blame for the death of Emanuele Di Caterino, the 13-year-old from Aversa stabbed to the heart during a fight between teenagers in 2013.

This is the scenario that emerged in the past few hours before the Fourth Criminal Section of the Naples Court of Appeal, where Deputy Prosecutor General Valter Brunetti, at the end of his closing speech, requested the acquittal of defendant Agostino Veneziano. The reasoning chills the victim's family: self-defense.

Veneziano, now 29 but 17 at the time of the incident, allegedly acted to defend himself from an attack by Emanuele's group of friends, according to the Attorney General's Office. This theory undermines the claim of his mother, Amalia Iorio, forcing her to relive the pain of that fateful evening of April 7, 2013, when her son went out for fun and never returned.

The dynamics and the expert opinion: "Shot in the back"

The prosecutor's request sparked a strong reaction from the civil plaintiff. The Di Caterino family's lawyers—Maurizio Zuccaro, Sergio Cola, and Barbara Esposito—have filed a defense brief that aims to dismantle, point by point, the self-defense argument, leveraging scientific evidence.

According to the lawyers, the autopsy reveals a truth that is incompatible with the defense: The position of the blow: Emanuele was struck in the back. "He was struck when he could no longer pose a danger to the stabber," the lawyers emphasize.

The trajectory: The blow was struck downward. This detail, explains lawyer Zuccaro, contradicts the defendant's story, surrounded on the ground: "Veneziano was standing and struck the victim from behind."

The disproportion: The gap between the victim, who acted with his bare hands, and the attacker armed with a blade is highlighted.

"Only after Emanuele was stabbed," lawyer Zuccaro explained to ANSA, "did his friends, seeing him on the ground, pounce on Veneziano. Furthermore, the defendant lied about the origin of the weapon: he said he found it on the ground, but it turned out it was his."

The judicial labyrinth and the appeal to Nordio

The legal case of Emanuele Di Caterino is a textbook example of the slowness and uncertainty of the Italian justice system. Veneziano was sentenced to eight years in the first instance, but was raised to ten on appeal. The Supreme Court of Cassation intervened in 2023, overturning the sentence and adjourning it. A second appeal trial had reinstated the sentence to eight years, but in 2024 the Supreme Court overturned the sentence again, requesting further investigation into the issue of self-defense.

Now, as the next hearing awaits in a few days, Amalia Iorio launches a desperate appeal to the institutions, addressing Justice Minister Carlo Nordio directly.

"We never sought revenge, but justice. And justice must be served by carefully reading the trial documents," his mother states. "Emanuele is the son of all of you, a 13-year-old who left home for fun and was brutally stabbed by a boy his own age who had brought a knife with him to take the life of a defenseless young man."

The woman denounces not only the risk of impunity, but also the technical difficulties—such as incompatibilities in forming the judging panel—that have transformed the trial into an endless ordeal.