Testimony of Violence in Italian Prison

"When I see two or three guards approaching my cell, even today I freeze in fear: from the day of the beatings, from the many blows received, I can no longer pee standing up". These are the words of the witness Vincenzo Baia, a civil party in the maxi-trial for the violence committed against the inmates of the Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison on April 6, 2020, which sees 105 defendants among prison police officers, officials of the Department of Penitentiary Administration (Dap) and doctors of the Asl of Caserta. Baia, still imprisoned for robbery, is forced to stop during the examination while being heard by the public prosecutors Alessandro Milita, Daniela Pannone and Alessandra Pinto; the shock of what he experienced that April 6 nearly four years ago is too strong. Baia also says he recognizes the agent Stanislao Fusco, defendant, as the one who beat him violently at the prison's registration office. "He gave me a lot and tore my beard, then when with another 7-8 agents came into my cell, he kept himself apart because he knew what he had done"; Fusco's defender, Angelo Raucci, contests him that after the facts "you said that the beard was torn off in the corridor by another agent, not at the registration office". "My beard was torn off several times, and always by the same agent" Baia corrects himself, who then recounts: "On the ground floor of the Nilo department I found myself in front of a sea of agents, and I took many, and from one in particular - recognized in the defendant Giacomo Golluccio - a kick in the stomach"; the witness also explains that "only one agent helped me, namely the one who accompanied me to the isolation cell in the Danube department"; in the courtroom the witness indicates the defendant Michele Vinciguerra, and the prosecutor Milita points out to him that "after the facts, when he was heard, you indicated the agent Angelo Bruno, who is completely different from the defendant indicated today". "Then I must have been mistaken" Baia replies, "but the only policeman who saved me is the one indicated today".