Erba massacre, the Brescia Court of Appeal confirms Olindo and Rosa's conviction: no to reviewing the trial

The Brescia Court of Appeal, presided over by Antonio Minervini, deemed inadmissible the claims of Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi's defence, did not admit any of the new evidence that the lawyers had put forward to try to reopen the case on the Erba massacre, and in fact confirmed life imprisonment for Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi.

Today's verdict - which came almost five hours into the council chamber - reaffirms what had already been established at first instance, on appeal and in the Court of Cassation on the quadruple murder of 11 December 2006, and crushes the hopes of the couple who witnessed the verdict in the same cage. No surprises, as predicted: even the judges of Brescia believe that the neighbours are the authors of the massacre in the 'Palazzina del ghiaccio' in Via Diaz when, under blows from bars and knives, Raffaella Castagna (30), her son Youssef Marzouk, only two years old, and the maternal grandmother of the little Paola Galli (57) are killed.

According to the reconstruction that led to the conviction, reconfirmed by the Brescia Public Prosecutor's Office, it was the left-handed Rosa who plunged the blade into the child's throat. The flames set off wiped out the traces, but when the attackers closed the door of Raffaella's flat behind them, they found their neighbours standing in front of them, incredulous: Mario Frigerio, who had been attacked by Olindo because of a carotid artery malformation, was saved, and his wife Valeria Cherubini, who was 55 years old, was shot on the stairs and then killed in their attic.

'A sentence has been passed, we will read the motivations and appeal to the Court of Cassation'. This was stated by Fabio Schembri, one of the defenders of Olindo Romano, who together with his wife Rosa Bazzi was definitively sentenced to life imprisonment for the Erba massacre, after the Brescia court rejected the request to review the trial.

"I am disappointed, I remain convinced that they did not do it. Until the investigation is truly reopened, I remain of my opinion'. This is how Azouz Marzouk, father and husband of two of the four victims of the Erba massacre, comments on the Brescia judges' decision not to reopen the case on the quadruple murder for which Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi were definitively sentenced to life imprisonment. Civil plaintiff but convinced of the innocence of the convicted, to those who ask him if it is time to apologise to the Castagna brothers, Azouz replies: 'I don't know them'.