The hearing in the trial of reviewing the life sentence of Beniamino Zuncheddu , who has been in prison since February 1991 because he was believed to be the perpetrator of the Sinnai massacre committed the previous 8 January, opens in the Court of Appeal in Rome. And immediately there is a surprise: at the request of one of the witnesses the interrogation takes place behind closed doors . Everyone out of the courtroom, therefore, except judges and lawyers.
The content of the deposition is perhaps the basis of the decision. Today you heard from a shepherd who was employed by the victims at the time (Gesuino Fadda, owner of the Cuile is Coccus sheepfold on the slopes of Mount Serpeddì a short distance from Burcei, his son Giuseppe and the shepherd Ignazio Pusceddu were killed), the current occupant of the sheepfold and a police sergeant.
The "super-witness", once the deposition was finished, was made to leave through a side door.
The triple crime, according to the reconstruction of the time, had been committed in an agro-pastoral environment.
Originally there were disagreements between neighboring farmers (near Cuile is Coccus there is Masone cuss), livestock trespassing, animals killed, arguments. And the one who carried out the massacre according to the sentence was Zuncheddu, who thus would have avenged the killing of the cows of those who gravitated towards Masone cuss.
Murders always denied, however, by the lifer.
In 2020, the then prosecutor of Cagliari, Francesca Nanni , and the prisoner's lawyer, Mauro Trogu , asked for the trial to be reviewed to demonstrate that in reality those responsible were others in terms of capacity for action, motivations and speed of execution.
According to them, there is a connection with the kidnapping of Gianni Murgia , committed in October 1990: the hostage was freed in Austis a few days after the massacre and the current hypothesis is that the bandits in transporting him to the hideout had passed through Cuile is Coccu to leave it to the custodian group.
