Christmas at home for Andrew Constantine, the Italian entrepreneur was stuck for months inside the Italian embassy in the United Arab Emirates after being released from the maximum security prison of Al Wathba. Constantine himself announced his return to Italy, speaking this morning, December 24, live on the microphones of Freedom Radio and satisfaction was expressed by Palazzo Chigi.
The entrepreneur thanked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matthew Salvinithe director general for Italians abroad of the Farnesina, Louis Vignaliand the Italian ambassador in Abu Dhabi, Lorenzo Fanara.
Costantino, 50, from Milan, was arrested on charges of financing terrorism in Yemen last March 21, while he was in a hotel in Dubai, where he was staying with his family. He had returned to the United Arab Emirates to renew his expiring residence visa and had ended up in the Al Wathba penitentiary. Released last May, thanks to the mediation of Italian diplomacy, the entrepreneur has so far lived in an annexe of the Italian embassy, his passport having been confiscated by the UAE authorities.
“I still have to realize that I’m finally in Italy. I’m still in a bubble and I don’t realize it. But seeing my wife Stefania and my daughter at the airport after two years was something indescribable”, says Costantino. Again: “My daughter brought me a frame with a drawing where she wrote” how nice you are here “. Finding her was a fantastic feeling after so many difficult moments”.
The story of the detention is heavy. Those days in the penitentiary are described by Constantine as more than horrible. “I was bitten by rats – he says – held in a cell of 4 with 14 other people, food was given to us on the floor. I only saw my lawyer once in more than a year in prison. An indelible experience in negative sense of the word”.
However, the entrepreneur is now looking to the future: “I want to spend as much time as possible with my family, then I’ll have to get back on my feet and work. In the meantime, I’m enjoying these moments of pure joy”.