Description
Groenlandia for Sky Original
Naples, 3 July 1983, in the suburb of Ponticelli: the bodies of Barbara Sellini and Nunzia Munizzi, aged 7 and 10 respectively, were discovered on a stretch of the dry riverbed of the Pollena torrent.
The bodies had been positioned one on top of the other and were half burnt and covered in puncture wounds and slashes. The autopsy revealed that they had been subjected to abuse and sexual violence. “The Ponticelli murders” left an indelible mark, even in a community accustomed to counting the deaths from the ferocious infighting amongst the camorra mafia at that time. For almost two months the newspapers and television spoke of little else. Who could have committed such a horrific crime?
Although initial investigations had focussed on a convicted criminal who seemed to be the obvious culprit, on 4 September 1983 three young men aged between 18 and 20, none of whom had criminal records, were arrested out of the blue. Their names were Ciro Imperante, Giuseppe La Rocca and Luigi Schiavo.
The investigation dragged on and eventually the men were brought to trial three years later. Following custody in Napoli’s Poggioreale prison, the sentence were confirmed and upheld by Italy’s Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation: “life imprisonment, never to be released ” was written in the sentencing report.
The judgement, however, had been the result of a series of testimonies and confessions all shrouded in significant doubt due to the alleged acts of violence perpetrated during the interrogations, not to mention a question mark concerning a possible role played by the camorra.
Since 2015 Ciro, Luigi and Giuseppe have been living as free men, after having spent more than 27 years in prison together in the same cell, each day professing their innocence. In the summer of 2022, when the men had already seen three of their requests rejected, the Anti-mafia Commission voted unanimously to investigate whether the case had been compromised by infiltration by members of the camorra. Today the three are waiting for a new commission to begin interviewing key witnesses and to perform a much hoped-for review of the trial.
Could the real culprit still be on the loose? And could Ciro, Giuseppe and Luigi be the victims of one of Italy’s worst miscarriages of justice?