"The first thing he said to me was: 'Mom, what I experienced was terrible. I attempted suicide several times.'" Vlasta Studenicova, mother of Matteo Falcinelli, the 25-year-old student from Spoleto who was the victim of violent treatment during an arrest in Florida, told Agorà on RaiTre. «Matteo will return to Italy shortly... then he will return for the summer semester», added the woman.
First blocked by a knee, then the strong tightening of a belt to add unnecessary suffering in the cell : the shocking images dating back to February 25th from the bodycams of the agents in Miami have shaken the Farnesina to the point of "maximum attention on the case", which for almost three months he follows the story through the consulate general in the Florida city, ever since Falcinelli was blocked by the police for violence (later downgraded to resistance), contempt and trespass that night when the boy was trying to re-enter a strip club where he had been, to get his lost phones back inside the club. "The embassy and consulate are dealing with the matter," said Fulvio Falcinelli, Matteo's father.
The same minister and deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani, who contacted the 25-year-old's mother to express his solidarity, said he was "deeply affected by the violence and the type of treatment that was applied to our young compatriot: that system in Italy evokes something which I don't even want to name." Actions deemed "unacceptable" even by the consul and of which Falcinelli still bears the signs of deep psychological wounds, as his mother explains: "His desire to live has turned into a nightmare of living."
Whatever the scenarios, a delicate issue is now opening up on the matter between the Spoleto student's lawyers and the Florida authorities, precisely at a time when the USA, after a difficult agreement, is preparing to transfer Chico Fort I to Italy , convicted in 2000 to life imprisonment by a court of the same American state for the premeditated murder of an Australian entrepreneur.
«The American administrative structure should recognize that there was behavior that was totally outside the rules, totally unjustified and disproportionate to what was the need for intervention. I think that the main purpose of Italy's requests for clarification is precisely this: to make it clear that everything must be reported in the right terms", explains the family's lawyer, Francesco Maresca, referring to his requests to the Rome Prosecutor's Office , "who can intervene in matters concerning Italian citizens abroad". It cannot therefore be ruled out that the Prosecutor's Office could open a file to request information from its American colleagues on the incident and to urge them to proceed directly against the police. Miami police have launched an internal investigation into the Falcinelli affair . But Matteo's mother launches new accusations: «In the report that the police released, written under the oath of the officers, there is not a single word that corresponds to what is seen in the footage. It says something completely different,” says Vlasta Studenivova.
The young man is currently undergoing alternative treatment to prison , parallel to probation in Italy and at the end of this period - explains his lawyer - "from a judicial point of view this matter ends for him".
(Unioneonline/D)
