The State Police of Agrigento, at the disposal of the Palermo Anti-Mafia District Attorney and with the coordination of the Palermo Antimafia District Directorate, carried out a detention order against a suspect in a crime against 3 from outside the EU who landed on Lampedusa last June 29, for very serious crimes such as criminal association, trafficking, sexual violence, murder and others. For the first time, on the subject of immigration, the recently introduced crime of torture is disputed.
The police of the Flying Squad also contest the 3 subjects for the management of an illegal prison center, located in a former military base in the Libyan city of Zawyia, where hundreds of migrants, who tried to embark to reach the Italian coasts, were deprived of personal freedom.
Furthermore, migrants were subjected to systematic harassment and atrocities - through repeated and constant physical violence (consisting of systematic beatings with sticks, rifle butts, rubber tubes, whipping and the administration of electric shocks), repeated serious threats (carried out with the use of weapons or brutally beating other migrants as a demonstration gesture), accompanied by the failure to provide basic necessities, such as drinking water, and medical treatment for illnesses contracted there or serious injuries sustained in prison - al in order to obtain from their relatives the payment, in favor of the same members, of sums of money as the price of their release and / or their departure to the Italian State, or, in the absence of payment, they were alienated to other traffickers of men for their sexual and / or labor exploitation or sometimes killed; association aimed at committing a plurality of serious crimes, such as trafficking in persons, sexual violence, torture, murder, kidnapping for the purpose of extortion, aiding and abetting illegal immigration.
The detainees, who after being disembarked at Lampedusa had been transferred to a reception center in Messina, were identified and monitored by police officers from the Squadra Mobile of Agrigento, in collaboration with the Messina Flying Squad, and have their capture and the following transfer to the local Prison Center.
The staff of the Squadra Mobile of Agrigento, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Palermo and Agrigento, developed a meticulous investigation activity between Lampedusa, Agrigento, Castelvetrano, Marsala and other Municipalities of Calabria, managing to gather among the migrants, different testimonies considered reliable, concordant and punctual, which allowed the issuing of today's restrictive provision.
Among the statements collected, we highlight some passages that testify to the seriousness of the events for which we proceed:
"All the women who were with us once housed in that shed were systematically and repeatedly raped by the Libyan 2 and Nigerian 3 who ran the facility. I specify that from that structure one could not go out. We were locked. The two Libyans and a Nigerian were armed with submachine guns, while the other two Nigerians had two sticks.
The living conditions within that structure were unheard of. They gave us sea water to drink and, once in a while, hard bread. We men were beaten during our stay in that facility in order to make our relatives aware of paying them money in exchange for our release. In fact, it happened that the aforementioned organizers provided us with a telephone with which we had to contact our family members to dictate how they had to pay the sums of money demanded by our kidnappers. I was able to learn that the sum requested by the organizers in exchange for the release of each of us was around 10000 Libyan dinars. I, despite being encouraged to contact my family members, have always refused, for this reason I was subjected to beating them. I point out that, on the occasion of my refusal, a Nigerian, with the butt of his pistol, after immobilizing the thumb of my right hand on a table, struck me violently on the finger, fracturing it. During my stay in that building I saw that the organizers shot and killed two migrants who had tried to escape. "
"During my stay in that facility, due to my grievances against my unjust imprisonment, I was repeatedly beaten. I suffered real tortures that left scars on my body. I specify that I was whipped by electric wires. Other times he was beaten, even on his head. "
“The man - omitted - was unscrupulous, as he beat all the prisoners and tortured them, whipping them with electric cables; he beat them with rubber tubes. "
"We were all subjected to constant violence and torture by our jailers, because they demanded payment of a sum of money, from relatives, in exchange for our release. Those who did not pay were tortured with electricity. They gave you shocks that made you fall to the ground unconscious. I personally witnessed so many murders that occurred with the electric shock. It happens that they provide you with a mobile phone with which to contact relatives to urge them to pay the ransom. Where the requested sums were not received, the migrant was then killed. "
"I have been beaten several times, even for no apparent reason. We migrants were beaten by a rubber tube which caused us so much pain and sometimes wounds. Personally, inside that prison, I have seen that a migrant has died because of hunger. He was malnourished and no one lent him the necessary assistance. I have also seen many other sick migrants who were not subjected to the necessary care. I saw that a jailer, this omissis, once shot and shot in the legs a Nigerian, guilty of having taken a piece of bread. I have seen that, many times during the day, women were taken away by jailers to be raped. From this prison they were only released if the ransom was paid. Those who did not pay, in order to solicit payment, were repeatedly beaten and tortured. "