A 25 year old Italian student, Matteo Falcinelli, originally from Spoleto, was arrested in Florida, in Miami, in particularly violent ways. The online edition of the newspaper La Nazione writes it. The young man was allegedly knocked to the ground, with his face pressed to the asphalt, then taken to prison. Once in a transit cell at the North Miami Beach police station, four of them allegedly hogtied him and subjected him to hogtie restraint. They tied their feet to handcuffs behind their backs with a strap, pulling for 13 minutes.
The twenty-five year old – writes La Nazione – is in the United States to attend the master’s degree at Florida International University (at the Biscayne Bay Campus). The scenes of violence would have been filmed by the bodycams worn by the officers, including the one inside the police station, which the young man’s American lawyer managed to obtain from the prosecutor’s office only on April 12 as part of the trial, which effectively ended with admission to the PTI (Pre trail intervention), a sort of re-educational programme.
The episode dates back to the night between 24 and 25 February but that Matteo’s family wanted to report only now that the young man has accepted the program ordered by the judge which will nullify the four charges of resisting a public official, resisting arrest without violence and trespassing. The family – we read – wants to press charges.
From the first reconstruction of the same family it would emerge that the young man had gone to a club where he had met some people and drank some drinks. His memories are blurred, he does not remember how he got to the exit where there was a police patrol. The police will write that they intervened because the boy created problems in the place so much so that he was thrown out and that he resisted arrest, resisting the officers.
Since the beginning of the story, the Italian consulate general in Miami has been following the case of compatriot Matteo Falcinelli arrested by the police in Miami Beach on the night between 24 and 25 February and released after 2 days. The consul general in Miami, states a note from the Farnesina, underlined with the local authorities the unacceptability of the treatments that the young man underwent. The Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has already called for maximum attention to the case of the US ambassador to Italy Jack Markell, recalling that the Italian government dutifully follows every case of detention of Italian citizens abroad.
“The images of the brutal arrest of the Italian student Matteo Falcinelli, tied hand and foot and left face down on the ground by the Miami police leave us speechless – he stated the secretary of Più Europa Riccardo Magi –: it is clear that it was not a normal arrest procedure but a serious violation of the rights of one of our compatriots who suffered real torture. So serious that I’m presenting a urgent question to Foreign Minister Tajani to come to the House to report. The government must not hide its head in the sand as in the Salis case and intervene immediately.”
The mother: ‘Matteo is ill, I will not have peace until we have justice’
“What my son suffered must never happen again, much less to a 25-year-old student abroad. They took away his smile and destroyed his dreams from Matteo, cheerful and full of life, even leading him to try to take away his life He was tortured: just watch the videos to understand.” Vlasta Studenicova, the mother of the 25-year-old Italian student who suffered a violent arrest in Miami, said this in an interview with Qn.
Then he adds: “He is very ill. They have destroyed his life. He is followed by psychologists and psychiatrists. Initially he was hospitalized due to his serious injuries, then transferred to a psychiatric hospital because he was at risk of suicide. Even now at night he dreams of the arrival of the police torturing him and waking up screaming.” Now they are in Miami, on campus. “Matteo avoids going out – he says – he is terrified that it could happen again”. The boy’s mother says she is “very” afraid. But I will not have peace – she assures – until we have justice, which is why I need everyone’s help to carry on this battle for human rights and to condemn the torture of a human being.”
Read the full article on ANSA.it