Involuntary Witness

Answer: No.

Abdou’s interrogation by the public prosecutor was little less than catastrophic.

It had taken place at night, in the carabinieri station in Bari, with a defence lawyer appointed by the court.

The report was a summary, without recording or stenotyped record.

On 11 August 1999, at 01.30 hours, in the offices of the Operations Unit of the Carabinieri of Bari, before the Public Prosecutor Dr Giovanni Cervellati, assisted in the drafting of the present statement by Sergeant Sciancalepore Pasquale, attached to the Carabinieri of Monopoli, there appeared Abdou Thiam, born 4 March 1968 in Dakar, Senegal, and domiciled in Bari, Via Ettore Fieramosca 162.

Note is made of the presence of Avvocato Giovanni Colella, appointed for this occasion by the court to defend the said Thiam, the latter not having chosen to appoint a lawyer of his own.

The Public Prosecutor charges the said Abdou Thiam with the offences of unlawful restraint and murder of Francesco Rubino and gives him a summary of the evidence against him.

He informs him that he has the right not to answer questions, but that the inquiries will continue even if he does not answer.

The suspect states: I intend to answer and expressly renounce any time for defence.

Counsel for defence has no observation to make.

In answer to questioning, the suspect replies: I deny the charges. I am not acquainted with any Francesco Rubino. This name means nothing to me.

Suspect replies: On the afternoon of August 5th I believe I went to Naples in my car. I went to visit some fellow countrymen of mine whose names I am, however, unable to indicate. We met, as on other occasions, in the neighbourhood of the Central Station. I am unable to provide useful indications for the identification of these fellow countrymen of mine and I am unable to indicate anyone in a position to confirm that I was in Naples that day.

Suspect replies: I refuse to admit that I went to Monopoli that day. When I returned from Naples, I remained in Bari.

Suspect replies: I take cognizance of the fact that Your Excellency points out to me that the version I have provided appears totally unworthy of credit. I can only confirm that I went to Naples that day and never went at all to Monopoli or adjacent areas.

Suspect replies: I take cognizance of the fact that there is a witness who saw me in the vicinity of Capitolo on the very afternoon of August 5th. I take cognizance of Your Excellency’s advice that I should make a confession. I take cognizance of the fact that by confessing I might mitigate my situation. I must, however, confirm that I did not commit the murder of which I am accused and do not understand how anyone says that they saw me on August 5th in the vicinity of Capitolo.

At this point it is placed on record that the suspect is shown a photograph found in his lodgings in the course of the search there carried out.

Having viewed the aforesaid photograph, Thiam states:

I know the boy portrayed in the photo but I learn only now that his name is Francesco Rubino. I knew him by the name of Ciccio.

When questioned, the suspect replies: It was the little boy who gave me the photograph. It wasn’t me who took the snap. I don’t even own a camera.

At 02.30 hours the taking of the record is suspended to enable the suspect to consult with his defence counsel.

At 03.20 hours the record is resumed.

When questioned, the suspect replies: Even after talking to the lawyer – who advised me to tell the truth – I have nothing to add to the statements I have already made.

The defence had no observations to make.

Read, confirmed and signed.

Two days after his arrest, the hearing took place before the magistrate in charge of preliminary investigations. Abdou had availed himself of the right not to reply.

Since then he had not been further interrogated.

I re-read the order for precautionary detention. I read the decision of the regional appeals court by which – rightly, in view of the evidence – Abdou’s appeal was rejected.

I read and re-read every single document.

The statements of the habitues of that beach who said they had often seen Abdou stop and talk to the child. The statements of the Senegalese who spoke about the car-washing and the other Senegalese who had said that he had not seen Abdou at the usual beach the day after the child’s disappearance.

The scene-of-the-crime report about the finding of the boy’s body. The report of the search of Abdou’s home and the list of books confiscated.

The report of the police doctor, which I leafed through swiftly, avoiding the photographs.

The upsetting, useless statements of the boy’s parents and grandparents.

On the Sunday evening my eyes were smarting and I left the flat. The mistral was blowing and it was cold.

That pitiless cold peculiar to March, which makes spring seem a long way off.

I had thought of taking a stroll, but I changed my mind, fetched the car and headed north along the old State Road No. 16.

Bruce Springsteen was booming from the loudspeakers and in my head as I drove through the coastal towns, all deserted and swept by the north-west wind.

I stopped in front of the cathedral in Trani, facing the sea. I lit a cigarette. The harmonica screeched in my ears and in my soul.

The terrible words were written especially for my desperate solitude.

But I remember us riding in my brother’s car

Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir

At night on them banks I’d lie awake

And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take

Now those memories come back to haunt me

They haunt me like a curse.

At dawn I woke up shivering with cold, the taste of tobacco smoke in my mouth. My hand was still clutching the mobile, which I’d stared at interminably before falling asleep, thinking of calling Sara.

12

The code of criminal procedure requires that at least twenty days elapse between the announcement that inquiries have been concluded and the application for committal for trial. The public prosecutors nearly always take much longer. Months, sometimes.

Cervellati filed the request for committal on the twenty-first day. Obsessive punctuality was typical of him. You could accuse him of practically everything, but not of letting documents stack up on his desk.

The preliminary hearing was fixed for early May. The judge was Ms Carenza, and all in all it could have been worse.

Among us defence lawyers La Carenza was considered one of the good ones. The shortened procedure became an increasingly interesting possibility. Abdou really did have a chance of getting off with twenty years.

In about 2010, with good conduct, he would be out on parole.

While I was having these thoughts, still holding the note with the date of the hearing, I had an uneasy feeling.