«He was screaming: 'I'm on fire, I'm on fire'. He was a human torch." Shocking story from the bus driver who on 11 May 2022 in via Petta , Olbia , rescued Toni Cozzolino by putting out the flames that were enveloping him with a fire extinguisher. A testimony that brought the frost down this morning in the courtroom of the Assize Court of Sassari, where the murder trial of Davide Iannelli , 48 years old of Neapolitan origins, neighbor of the victim, is being held.
The accused , self-confessed and defended by the lawyers Cristina and Abele Cherchi, is accused of having burned Cozzolino alive by sprinkling him with petrol and setting the flames with a lighter . The man died in hospital after ten days of agony.
Today two witnesses testified before the Court, called into the courtroom by prosecutor Daniele Rosa: the bus driver who first helped Cozzolino and the petrol station where Iannelli filled up with petrol a few minutes before committing the murder. The testimony of the latter could be decisive in establishing whether the accused had premeditated the attack, as claimed by the prosecutor and the civil party lawyers Giampaolo Murrighile and Antonio Fois.
The witness confirmed that Iannelli used the vending machine and saw him bowing as if he were filling a container with the pump, but he was unable to see if and what he actually filled.
The bus driver's story is dramatic: he was stopped at the terminus with the doors open and saw Cozzolino arrive engulfed in flames as he was trying to get on the vehicle . Having taken the fire extinguisher supplied with the bus, the driver then managed to put out the fire, but Cozzolino's condition immediately appeared desperate: «He was still alive, but practically charred. His face was also completely burned,” he explained.
Today the testimony of Cozzolino's wife, Magdalena Murawska, was also expected, but the woman remained stuck in Poland: she is in a very fragile psychological condition and has asked to be heard at a future hearing.
Battle in the courtroom over the use of the minutes of the statements of Rosa Bechere, Iannelli's wife who disappeared into thin air a year ago.
The trial was adjourned until October 17.
(Unioneonline/vl)
