https://www.flickr.com/photos/15954559@N04/5184201676
On April 16, 2012, Alina Bonar Diachuk, a 32-year-old Ukrainian citizen, committed suicide in the police station of Villa Opicina, a small hamlet near Trieste. She does it by tying a rope to the radiator in the cell where she was locked up two days earlier. Alina died hanging after 40 long minutes of agony, during which none of the police officers on duty saw or heard anything. Among the main suspects is Carlo Baffi, head of the Immigration Office, who is charged with kidnapping and manslaughter. Along with him, 8 other officers. In that police station, Alina lost her life, but she wasn’t the only one to suffer abuse and violence: like her, many other foreign citizens awaiting deportation were held illegally in the cells of Opicina. A total of 174 cases have been identified, from August 2011 until April 2012. In June 2018, the judge issued a verdict of acquittal for the defendants, but the judicial battle is still open and all to play out on appeal. The final outcome will depend on the “weight” of the next judgment. Surely, no amount, no matter how large, can ever restore Alina’s life. For a reconstruction of the complex judicial process, download the contribution below.
