Milan, 15th April. (beraking latest news) – Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi, definitively sentenced to life imprisonment for , are innocent. This was supported by the Milan prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser who, on input from the defense, made a request for revision of the trial for the death of Raffaella Castagna, her son Youssef Marzouk, only 2 years old, the grandmother of the little Paola Galli and a neighbor Valeria Cherubini.
A request, reads the 58-page deed held by beraking latest news, which is raised by the magistrate “in all conscience, for the love of truth and justice and for the intolerability of the thought that two people, probably victims of a judicial error , are serving a life sentence.”
In this sense, he requests that the Brescia Court of Appeal, entitled to express itself on the matter, should proceed with the renewal of the hearing instruction by “examining the 57 technical consultants who have drawn up and signed the technical consultancy on the methods, technologies , the investigations carried out by them and on the results they have reached, and wishes to arrange, after obtaining the procedural documents, any further investigation deemed useful and necessary for the purposes of deciding according to truth and justice”.
“There were very many elements which, right from the first instance judgment, would have been suitable, if only evaluated by the judges, to judge the ‘recognition’ test unreliable, the ‘bloodstain’ test highly dubious and induced, in ways that define little orthodox is to exercise euphemism, the ‘confessions’, treated instead as queen trials” writes the deputy prosecutor of the Milan court of appeal.
“Today, after more than 17 years, science – if hopefully allowed to do so in the rescission judgment – is fortunately able to provide on its own, but above all in conjunction with the numerous critical issues in acts and not in acts, in any case never evaluated, those scientific certainties suitable for crumbling the three probative pillars on which the life sentences of Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi are based”, reads the document.
The context in which the three pieces of evidence, recognition by the eyewitness Mario Frigerio and bloodstain found on the door sill of Olindo Romano’s car, first and the confessions (of Olindo and his wife Rosa Bazzi), subsequently, matured is, writes the Milan pg Cuno Tarfusser, “a context that to define ‘sick’ is to exercise euphemism”. “These are considerations and observations which, if deepened and evaluated, could have already led to a different procedural outcome since the first instance judgment, but which today probably alone would not have the strength necessary to break the judgment”, we read in the 58-page document.
“However, they are able to trace a clear starting point, the basis, on which the technical-scientific assessments are grafted which, through new and more sophisticated techniques and methodologies evaluated together with the elements already in the records, evaluated and not evaluated, demonstrate that the defendants must be acquitted”.
The request for revision of the Erba massacre, proposed by the Milan prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser, is linked to two of the four hypotheses, envisaged by article 630 of the code of criminal procedure, namely, “the discovery of ‘new evidence’ following the conviction to demonstrate that the convicted must be acquitted (letter c) and that, partly descending as a consequence of the ‘new evidence’, referred to in letter d, or the demonstration that the sentence was pronounced also as a result of false documents or in court “.
In 58 dense pages, the Milan prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser lines up the evidence on which he bases the definitive life sentence – for the Erba massacre – of Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi “indicating the ontological criticalities never evaluated”, then, he goes on to list the “new evidence” highlighting how these “cancel the value and probative force of the first ones, placing them well beyond any reasonable doubt”. A detailed reconstruction in which he leaves to whoever will eventually have to judge “any further evaluation of the numerous and serious criticalities that have dotted the entire investigation, which above all in the light of the profiles of ‘novelties inherent in the ‘new tests’ shed more light on any reasonable suspicion as to how these investigations were conducted,” he writes. Doubts that led him to ask for the case to be reviewed – and therefore the acquittal of the Romano spouses – as a consequence of the “new evidence” or “the demonstration that the sentence was also pronounced as a result of false documents or in court”. The magistrate of the general prosecutor’s office approaches the request for revision in the autumn of 2022 when the defenders, the lawyers Fabio Schembri and Paolo Sevesi, submit the question to him then on 14 February last they make available to him the “new evidence” consisting of two substantial multidisciplinary consultancy concerning the recognition by Mario Frigerio (eyewitness of the massacre) and the confessions of the two convicts; a forensic biological-genetic technical consultancy which re-examines and re-evaluates in the light of technological and methodological development the bloodstain (of Valeria Cherubini, one of the four victims) found on the sill plate of Olindo’s car. “Well, if already after the study of the case much more than just a few perplexities had arisen, the analysis of these ‘new evidence’ alone, but above all inserted in the overall evidential fabric, crammed with criticalities from the outset, made me convinced that they demonstrate how the responsibility of the two convicts is far from established ‘beyond any reasonable doubt’ which only justifies a conviction and, consequently, I have definitively determined to propose this request for revision” adds the pg Tarfusser.
THE WITNESS – The acknowledgment made by the eyewitness Mario Frigerio, who lost his wife Valeria Cherubini in the Erba massacre, claims the Milan prosecutor, is not reliable. “The worsening of the psychic condition and the cognitive deficits manifested by Mario Frigerio during his hospital stay, the incorrect investigative interview techniques full of numerous suggestions made about him and the clear violation of precise and well-known scientific laws regarding memory and recognition of faces demonstrate in an incontrovertible way that the memory concerning Olindo Romano as his attacker is a false memory and that Mario Frigerio was an unsuitable subject to give valid testimony about the events that took place on the evening of 11 December 2006”, reads the document.
For almost 17 years, the massacre in Erba has been making people talk and several times the show ‘Le Iene’ has questioned the sentences. Now, for the first time, a magistrate is trying to ‘crumble’ the three pieces of evidence on which the convictions are based. In particular, with respect to the recognition “one cannot fail to note how this recognition had a tortuous genesis, is affected by evident and serious critical elements that make it extremely doubtful but, above all, that it is based on elements which, despite being in have never been scrutinized and evaluated by the Courts of merit”.
THE CONFESSIONS – “The self-accusatory statements” of Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi, definitively sentenced to life imprisonment for the Erba massacre, “are to be considered false acquiescent confessions”. “These conclusions are based on the most recent and advanced scientific data that correspond to the criteria which, if lacking, make the confessions false confessions” argues the Milan prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser in the request for review of the case, on which . A conclusion dictated by the consultants, consulted by the magistrate, documented in 16 attachments which refers to “recent scientific research after 2010”, but also “on the basis of new elements, and others already present in the trial file but never evaluated”.
THE QUEEN EVIDENCE – The bloodstain of the victim Valeria Cherubini, which was allegedly found on the sill of Olindo Romano’s car, is not a prime proof of the guilt of Olindo and his wife Rosa Bazzi, sentenced to life imprisonment for the Erba massacre , but it is instead the queen proof of their innocence. The Milan pg Cuno Tarfusser is convinced of this, who in his request for a review of the trial tries to crumble the three pieces of evidence that led to the definitive conviction. In particular, we read in the 58 pages signed by the magistrate of the general prosecutor’s office, “the characteristics of the blood trace, as detected during the analysis, are not reconcilable with what would be legitimate to expect as a result of the previous sampling operations and records performed”. The retrieval and documentation of the samples “appears to be very lacking in compliance with common parameters of scientific reliability and verifiability, even more so if the competence of this activity is reported in the forensic field”.
This ‘scientifically proven irreconcilability’ between the trace found and the trace analyzed “raises a series of questions in terms of the authenticity of the activities performed and the documents drawn up which cannot remain unanswered” underlines the prosecutor who seems to question the work carried out on the case. “The basic question – writes pg Tarfusser – concerns why this investigation, very delicate and potentially decisive, in search of possible traces attributable to the crimes committed, is carried out 15 days later, at 11 pm, by a single sergeant of the carabinieri and not, with all the trappings in terms of professionalism, competence and with the appropriate technical equipment, by the Ris specialists already on site”.
If the only trace of blood that binds the alleged perpetrators and one of the four victims can raise some doubts about the “genuineness”, the pg tries to reverse the reasoning. “Whereever the ‘queen proof’ ever existed, this is a queen proof. However, proof of the innocence of the two convicts. Unless they are attributed, in addition to an extraordinary coldness and ability, also miraculous qualities. That is, those of having succeeded to leave no trace of them at the place where they unleashed an unbridled rage leaving a bloodbath and to have managed not to ‘bring’ any trace of the crime just committed in their appurtenances”.
THE ALTERNATIVE TRACKS – The Milan police officer Cuno Tarfusser tries to dismantle the three pieces of evidence that led to the definitive life sentence of Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi for the Erba massacre, but in the request for revision he specifies, in a note, as “it will not deal in any way with the other, as numerous as they are disturbing issues, problematic questions, actions and omissions with which this investigation is dotted which, where not entirely ignored, have never been investigated as they should have been”. The reference is, purely by way of example, “to the failure to pursue other investigative leads as well: to the unexplained shortcomings of days, in both environmental and telephone interceptions: to the failure to examine possible eyewitness texts, to the destruction of finds in violation of a maintenance order”. Doubts that the television program ‘Le Iene’ has raised several times in a counter-investigation into the massacre of December 11, 2006.