Photo of blindfolded suspect divides public opinion in Italy

How a brutal street murder on a cop in Rome became a state affair.

What started as a brutal street murder on a cop in Rome, has grown into an international discussion about the interrogation techniques of the Italian police. The discussion evokes memories of the controversial case surrounding Amanda Knox. At the center of that discussion is a photo that, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, is reminiscent of scenes from Guantánamo Bay.

The funeral for Deputy Brig. Mario Cerciello Rega in Somma Vesuviana, southern Italy.

The photo, intended for an internal WhatsApp police group, shows an 18-year-old American murder suspect during his interrogation at a Roman police station. Although blindfolding a suspect is illegal in Italy, the boy is both blindfolded and handcuffed and surrounded by carabinieri, members of the Italian military police.

It all started on Friday evening last week. American teenagers Finnegan Lee Elder (19) and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth (18) try to crackle cocaine in the Roman entertainment district of Trastevere. On a square they are approached by Sergio Brugiatelli, a kind of intermediary who brings the two in contact with a real drug dealer. At least, that's what they think, because in exchange for a hundred euros, they only get a few grams of crushed aspirin. As soon as they find out, they take the bag from intermediary Brugiatelli out of a sort of retaliation and dive into an alley.

Emergency call

Brugiatelli first calls his own number with a borrowed phone and then 112 (the European '911'). He hides that a drug deal preceded the robbery, but says that the two thieves want 100 euros from him in exchange for his bag. On the advice of the police, Brugiatelli makes an appointment that same night in a square a little further away, where two military civilian agents will flank him.

From then on, things start going completely wrong on that square. As soon as the carabinieri see the two Americans and identify themselves, a struggle arises in which one of the American teenagers pulls a knife with which he stabs 35-year-old Sergeant Mario Cerciello Rega, just back from his honeymoon, eleven times. With eight of those knife stitches, the 18-centimeter-long blade penetrates its body all the way to the handle. He dies in the hospital that same night.

Although one of the two Americans has blond hair, Cerciello Rega's partner later stated that the perpetrators were "probably African". That rumor took on a life of its own after Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the right-nationalist Lega said during a TV broadcast: “Apparently they were not Italians. What a surprise!" Salvini called for "hard labour for life for these bastards".

"Only blindfolded for four to five minutes"

Speculation only stopped when it was announced last weekend that two American teenagers were being arrested on Friday in their hotel room. They had already packed their bags and were planning to fly back to the US later that evening. The murder weapon turned out to be hidden in the ceiling of their room. A photo of one of them was taken a few hours later while he was blindfolded at a police station.

According to the officer who put the cloth on him, the suspect wore him for a maximum of four to five minutes so that he could not see documents lying around in the interrogation room. The police appearance could count on understanding from many right-wing politicians. Deputy Prime Minister Salvini, for example, regularly shared the photo of the interrogation in recent days with the text: "Victim?" The only victim is a man, a son, a husband, a carabiner, a servant of our state. "

Amanda Knox 2.0

Nevertheless, the agent has meanwhile been put on hold by the Italian Prime Minister and two different investigations are underway into the actions of his colleagues. Not long after the photo, the suspect would have confessed his murder, the police said. His lawyer disputes that, however, and several human rights organizations such as Amnesty International state that "the confession is of little value given the circumstances in which it was obtained."

That a photo of an American teenager in Rome could grow into a national riot in just a few days, is because state violence has already been a serious concern in Italy for some time. Every year dozens of prisoners die in Italian prison cells without their death being adequately investigated, because of the prevailing culture of silence within the police force. Especially notorious is the case of Stefano Cucchi. That young Roman died in his cell in 2009 after being seriously abused during his interrogation. Only after years of litigation did the first officers end up in jail, but most of those involved still walk around freely.

The most mentioned case this week, however, was that of Amanda Knox, the American exchange student who was imprisoned for many years for the murder of a roommate, partly because during her 50-hour interrogation in the Italian city of Perugia, she gave vague and contradictory answers. The European Court of Human Rights later stated that the Italian police had dropped serious stitches during that interrogation, among other things by denying Knox access to a translator.

Extradition

It is unclear whether the two American teenagers could use an independent translator last weekend. It is clear that their defense is currently investigating whether they can be extradited to the USA because they are being prevented from taking a fair trial in Italy.

One of two Americans arrested over the killing of an Italian police officer in Rome is pictured blindfolded in a police station. Photo leaked to Corriere della Sera.

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