Zuncheddu law on compensation for victims of justice deposited in the Chamber: 50,000 signatures collected

At the Chamber of Deputies, the year ended with the deposit of an immense stack of boxes bearing the face of Beniamino Zuncheddu, the Sardinian shepherd locked up for almost 33 years in prison, accused of a triple murder he did not commit, and acquitted in January 2024 after a review trial. A stack of boxes containing the more than 50,000 signatures needed to present a popular initiative bill calling for a monthly maintenance allowance to be given to victims of justice, pending compensation from the State. A request that has as its emblem the case of the Sardinian shepherd to whom bad justice stole almost 33 years of his life, forcing him to spend decades behind bars as an innocent man, without being able to have a job, build a family, lead a normal life. And without today being able to have a pension to support himself. A person without economic resources who, if he had no family, would have to live on the streets.

The collection of signatures - promoted by the Radical Party through the tireless Irene Testa, guarantor of detainees in Sardinia and treasurer of the party, and supported by Beniamino Zuncheddu's family - has exceeded the 50,000 signatures needed to present to Parliament a law of civilisation to compensate people who have had everything taken away from them, despite being innocent. A bill animated by the borderline case of the Sardinian shepherd who entered prison a few months before turning 27 and left at the age of 60. All because of a false testimony induced by a Criminalpol agent at the time who had convinced the only survivor of the massacre to falsely recognise Zuncheddu as the author of the triple murder and the attempted murder of the only survivor. An affair to which Il Sole 24 Ore and Radio 24 have dedicated the podcast "Innocente", available on the Sole website and on the main platforms.

"I should thank you one by one. So much beauty and solidarity I have encountered in these months. We have laughed and cried together. I have met wonderful people,' stressed the Garante dei detenuti della Regione Sardegna Irene Testa on social media, recounting the months of signature collection, 'starting with the many volunteers who collected without ever stopping; the authenticating lawyers who accompanied us step by step; the many municipalities that did the impossible to certify the signatures, some even working overtime. Of course to the Radical Party that promoted this bill of civilisation. We dedicate this result to Beniamino and others so that his story may represent a present and future warning to an often deaf and indifferent politics. But now the battle continues, moving from the squares to Parliament'.

"It is time for Parliament to intervene to remedy this regulatory vacuum,' Irene Testa told Il Sole 24 Ore, 'which generates a double injustice. It is neither acceptable nor bearable that a victim of the justice system that did not work, that misjudged, that imprisoned, can wash his hands of it and force people to beg in order to be able to

Beniamino Zuncheddu con Irene Testa, tesoriera del Partito Radicale e garante dei detenuti della Sardegna, durante la raccolta delle firme per la legge di iniziativa popolare intitolata al pastore sardo, per quasi 33 anni in carcere da innocente

survive. That of the Radical Party was an important mobilisation involving hundreds of volunteers. And as Marco Pannella used to say, people are always ahead of politics'.