The equipment of the five Italian divers who died in the Maldives must be sent to Italy as soon as possible, starting with the Go-Pro camera they were carrying, as well as their personal effects, of course. This is what the Rome Prosecutor's Office, leading the manslaughter investigation, is requesting in the letter rogatory sent to the authorities in Malé. In particular, the footage from the divers' cameras will be essential to understanding what happened in that 60-meter-deep cave.
Roman magistrates have sent Maldivian authorities an advance international rogatory letter. The letter requests judicial cooperation to obtain documents and the equipment used by the five men during the fatal dive. It is possible that investigators will also request the GoPro camera used by the five men and found inside the underwater cave where they died.
This is the main new development in the investigation into the tragedy in the Maldives, which killed Monica Montefalcone, 51, a professor of marine biology in Genoa; her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 23, who was about to graduate in biomedical engineering; Muriel Oddenino, 31, a researcher from Genoa; Federico Gualtieri, her peer, a recent graduate in marine biology and ecology, also from Genoa; and Gianluca Benedetti, 44, from Padua, manager and diving instructor for the tour operator that organized the excursion aboard the yacht "Duke of York" that cost the lives of the five Italians.
As has emerged in recent days, the divers apparently reached depths of sixty meters, while dives for similar groups typically take place at around 30 meters . Roman magistrates are eager to determine who authorized them. While the first two autopsies performed yesterday in Gallarate on Gianluca Benedetti and Federico Gualtieri are trying to shed light on the causes of the massacre, one of the family lawyers of Monica Montefalcone, one of the five victims, has pointed the finger at the University of Genoa, for which the expert worked: "Those dives in the Maldives were related to academic activities."
"These missions are annual, if not biannual, and the university is fully aware of what is being done," explained Alessandro Albert. For the other lawyer, Giuseppe Pugliese, "there are objective facts. The professor was there because she had to carry out a university-related activity." This opinion is also shared by Antonello Riccio, lawyer for the family of Federico Gualtieri, one of the deceased divers, a recent graduate in marine biology.
(Unioneonline)