On stage today, in Brescia, the defenders of the spouses Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi in the courtroom of the Court of Appeal, in which the requests for review of the sentence which sentenced the couple to life imprisonment for the Erba dell' massacre are being discussed 11 December 2010. A hearing which is expected to be complex and in which the lawyers will illustrate what they define as "new evidence" which, according to them, could lead to the acquittal of the spouses who in the days following the massacre in which four people were killed ( including a two-year-old child) confessed to being the perpetrators of the massacre.
Confessions that were induced by the defense because Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi, the victims' neighbor, were not in a mental condition to sustain in questioning as established by defense consultants in the documents attached to the request for review. The lawyers would also like to hear from a Tunisian who hypothesizes that the massacre occurred as part of a settling of scores in drug dealing.
Along the same lines, the request for revision presented by the deputy prosecutor of Milan Cuno Tarfusser "irritually and without having the right" as claimed by the prosecutor of Brescia Guido Rispoli and the state lawyer Domenico Chiaro according to whom, instead, the couple there is “a cascade of evidence.”
The prosecution has asked that all requests be declared inadmissible, including that of Olindo and Rosa's guardian, the lawyer Diego Soddu. In the courtroom at the last hearing, in addition to the spouses, who asked not to be filmed, there was also Azouz Marzouk, husband of Raffaella Castagna and father of little Youssef, killed in the massacre. The man claims that the Romano spouses are innocent and that investigations should be carried out elsewhere. Due to the ways in which the victims were killed, with bars and stabs, the Tunisian had spoken of "killers", of "people who know how to kill".
Dozens of people queued again this morning to attend the hearing. The same scene was recorded outside the Palace of Justice during the first hearing, in the rain, last March 1st. Among the people in the queue were many people - including young people - who said they wanted to attend out of curiosity.
Legal Castagna, they would just like to see the truth reaffirmed
The Castagna brothers would only like to "return to normality and see the truth reaffirmed". This was said by the lawyer Massimo Campa, who defends the brothers Pietro and Giuseppe who lost their mother, sister and nephew in the 2006 Erba massacre. Azouz, who maintains the innocence of the Romano spouses? "We have already spoken about Azouz and we have prosecuted him," said the lawyer upon his arrival in Brescia. For them "it would be painful to be here. They would just like to see the truth reaffirmed and to preserve a beautiful memory of those who are no longer here", he concluded.
Azouz Marzouk, 'many things don't add up'
Azouz Marzouk, who lost his wife and two-year-old son in the Erba massacre, explained upon his arrival in Brescia for the review hearing for Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi: "I'm fighting this battle for everyone, I can't say if I have had enemies, I lived in peace with everyone." The man, who maintains the innocence of the spouses, underlined: "I have read the papers, I have seen the path of these years which confirm that something is wrong, there are many things that do not add up".