The slaughter of the African

Castel Volturno massacre and slaughter of San Gennaro are the definitions attributed by the media to a massacre of Italian Camorra caused by a splinter group of the Casalesi Clan referring to Joseph Brisson, on the evening of Thursday, September 18, 2008, which led to the death of Antonio Celiento (manager of a games room, suspected of being an informer of the police) and six African immigrants, innocent victims of the massacre: Kwame Antwi Julius Francis, Affun Yeboa Eric Christopher Adams of Ghana, El Hadji Ababa and Samuel Kwako of Togo; Alex Jeemes of Liberia; who were at the tailoring Ob Ob Exotic Fashions in Varcaturo, in two separate transactions from the same group of fire.

The investigations carried out by the investigators, after the massacre, it was found that none of the migrants (all very young, the "oldest" was a little over thirty years) was involved in activities of a criminal and that none of them was linked to the Camorra, the local nor the so-called "Nigerian mafia," which, not far from there, the former hotel Zagarella, manages the square of a drug and the prostitution of girls in Africa on behalf of the powerful local mafia.

The massacre of immigrants, implemented with novel ways, caused a riot the next day of the immigrant community against organized crime and against the authorities, demanding that the murderers were brought to justice, a unique episode in the entire history of Italy. To deal with the delicate situation that had arisen were prepared immediately launched the emergency measures taken by the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defence on the fight against organized crime and illegal immigration Caserta.

One of the immigrants who were in the tailoring, Joseph Ayimbora, a Ghanaian citizen who lived in Castel Volturno eight years, survived, pretending to be dead, despite the barrage of shots that had hit him in the legs and abdomen, was able to have time to look in the face who had shot him and two other people. Following his testimony was crucial to acknowledge the authors of the massacre. Joseph Ayimbora then he too died of a brain aneurysm in February 2012.

The precedent of the 1990 Massacre of Pescopagano

The Slaughter of Castel Volturno has a precedent for its brutality, with the massacre of Pescopagano occurred April 24, 1990 in front of the bar "center" of the small hamlet of Mondragone. In ambush at the bar "Center" killed two people, Naj Man Fiugy and Alfonso Romano, and six were injured. Immediately after the focus group killed three foreigners: Haroub Saidi Ally, Ally Khalifan Khanshi, Hamdy Salim, aboard a Fiat 127 parked near the commercial operation, and wounded the fourth occupant of the car.
Among the dead and wounded two innocent Alfonso Romano, a painter who was drinking a beer and that in the days before, appeared in a movie of Rai, had asked the head of immigrants; a 14 year old boy, Francis Bocchetti, seriously wounded in the spine and then paralyzed. It was held at the bar to keep company with his father, the manager of the premises. [6]

The massacre was caused by the lens to block on behalf of boss Antonio Bardellino selling drugs in the area between Castel Volturno and Mondragone, an internal conflict between the two major criminal organizations of the place, the La Torre clan who ran from the years' entire territory and Casale.

Prelude to the massacre
A few weeks before the violent massacre had already been some serious incidents of intimidation of foreign citizens of Castel Volturno.

On 18 August 2008, at around 19:10, a commando of the Camorra, consisting of riders on two bikes with their faces protected by helmets and a van Fiat "shield" fired several rounds of Kalashnikov against the headquarters of the Nigerian Bell, Via Cesare Battisti nr. 1 of Castel Volturno, where they had gathered 14 people, including 4 children, were unharmed only because they were playing inside the house. [9]

The objective of the attack, the president of the Teddy Egonwman, mediator and interpreter for the State Police, has been fighting for years against the prostitution racket and drugs that involves a part of the Nigerian community in Castel Volturno, and whose bosses are the orders of the camorra, according to a pact born shortly after the massacre of Pescopagano and sees the Camorra mafia and Nigerians living in parallel on the Domitian coast with exchange of weapons, warranty watch for the houses of the fugitives, the "tax" paid to Casale on turnover of drugs and prostitution, the management of "money transfer."

By ballistic tests conducted in the laboratories of the Scientific Police, after the massacre of Castel Volturno, it emerged that the Kalashnikov rifle used in the attack of 18 August, in which five people were injured, including Teddy Egonwman and his wife, Alice, is the same as the massacre of 18 September. The attack caused the injury of six persons, including a woman, some of them seriously having sustained injuries to the head or chest, a fact that left no doubt about the intentions of the authors omicidiari and mass murderers. On this occasion three different weapons were used, as was found by the discovery of 24 shell casings due to a Kalashnikov rifle and 4 others fired from two different guns a cal. 9x21 and a cal. 40.

In the reconstruction carried out by investigators of the Flying Squad was possible to reconstruct the role of the protagonists: Garnet David holding the gun cal. 40; Bristle Joseph, descended from the Fiat van driven by Hallux Antonio, used the Kalashnikov after firing the gun resting on the railing of the gate, John Letizia, armed with the pistol cal. 9x21, he entered the courtyard. The weapons of Bristle and Letizia after the first gusts incepparono, a circumstance that prevented the group attuasse the purpose of entering the apartment and kill the present circumstance, this confirmed by Oreste Spagnuolo who played a role of coverage.

the massacre
The massacre of Castel Volturno, perpetrated with novel ways and with an impressive volume of fire was such as to bring the judiciary to identify, beyond aggravating to have acted with mafia method and the purpose of facilitating criminal association called the Casalesi clan even the aggravating circumstance of having acted with the purpose of discrimination and racial hatred, because hatred indiscriminate massacres indicated a group of bristle based on a racial prejudice, according to which you wanted to subject the entire community of color to the will of clan.

Another novel aspect of the process was the aggravating circumstance, as determined by the magistrate, the purpose of the terrorist massacre, which aims to arouse panic and strike terror in the community, through a violent action, indiscriminate and deliberately striking, with the aim of undermining confidence citizenship in the state and thus weaken the structures: the entire immigrant communities of color had to know anything, legal or illegal, it did on the territory needed the authorization of the clan and had to abide to the payment of a bribe.

Celiento Antonio, manager of a games room via Giorgio Vasari in Green Bay, with a criminal record for theft and robbery and affiliated to the Casalesi clan, was shot at about 21 to about sixty bullets in front of his statements; hospitalized at the clinic Pinewood Green, died shortly after.

After the ambush against Celiento, the ordered the killing, at a distance of twenty minutes from the first episode, reaches tailoring "Ob. Obj. Exotic Fashions", at number 1083 of the SS. Domitiana. Are Ghanaian citizens who were inside or near the tailoring are the victims of an impressive volume of fire exploded, as will also be established, at least seven weapons of different caliber and model. On the site of what were in fact repertati than 125 shell casings fall into two 7x62 caliber machine gun AK47 type (known as Kalashnikov), a submachine gun 9mm parabellum, 4 semi-automatic pistols (two 9mm parabellum, a caliber 9x21 and a 9x17 caliber). The raid mass murderer, according to the reconstruction of the police lasted less than thirty seconds. Even in this case, the investigators were able to reconstruct the dynamics and the role of mass murderers: Alessandro Cirillo was the driver of the Fiat Punto, David Garnet used a semi-automatic pistol 9x21, John Letizia with a gun and a semi-automatic machine gun, one of Kalashnikov Joseph Brisson , while the second was shouldered by Oreste Spagnuolo.

The three main perpetrators of the massacre were nailed by the police mugshots displayed for the sole survivor, the Ghanaian Joseph Ayimbora during hospitalization. From her testimony revealed that the killers were wearing police uniforms.

The victims of the Massacre
Antonio Celiento
Kwame Antwi Julius Francis: born in 1977 in Ghana, he fled the country in 2002, crossing the desert of Niger and stopping in Libya to work as a bricklayer and earn the amount required to pay for the trip across the Mediterranean. Francis had formalized his application for asylum in Crotone and then moved to Castel Volturno, several years after getting the "Humanitarian Protection". He worked as a bricklayer and tiler and had enrolled in a training course to learn the trade of welder. He lived in an apartment above the tailoring where the massacre took place and it was dropped in the street because Eric, another victim, had called him: he had a job offer as a bricklayer.
Affun Yeboa Eric stood on the site of the massacre only because it was passed to take Francis. His body was found lying at the wheel of his car, parked in front of tailoring. Francis had called and was waiting for him: he still had his seat belt fastened. Eric was in Italy since 2004, came from Ghana and it was without a residence permit. For a short time he moved to Castel Volturno where she began working as a coachbuilder.
Samuel Kwako: came from Togo, was a bricklayer, but like Alex, he did not refuse to work in the countryside.
El Hadji Ababa came from Togo and lived in Italy for five years. Ran the tailoring Ob Ob Exotic Fashions. His lifeless body was found slumped on the sewing machine, because that night was finishing work and then eat the evening meal during Ramadan, along with two friends who had achieved.
Jeemes Alex: Togolese citizen, had a residence permit for "humanitarian protection" obtained in Syracuse. He worked occasionally as a bricklayer but refused to work in the countryside. He was in tailoring because he had begun to collaborate with El Hadji for the sale of clothes.
Christopher Adams was 28 years old and was from Ghana. It was in Italy since 2002 and had been granted permission to stay for humanitarian protection. Adams was a barber in Naples, in Piazza Garibaldi. On the evening of the massacre had gone into tailoring for a greeting to friends.
Joseph Ayimbora: Ghanaian he was the only survivor of the massacre, despite serious wounds to the legs and abdomen. He had a permit since 1998, living with his partner and their daughter was born in Italy. The collaboration of Ayimbora, that you saved pretending to be dead, with the police and investigators has been instrumental in the reconstruction of events and the identification of the killers. He died in February 2012 for an aneurysm.
the revolt
The day after the massacre, September 19, hundreds of immigrants, compatriots of the victims killed on the night, sparked a popular revolt which was attended by a large part of the entire African community of Castel Volturno. The writer Roberto Saviano called spontaneous uprising that an act of courage of immigrants after that in the previous months had been killed innocent Italians, without which no one had rebelled.

In the early hours of the afternoon, hundreds of immigrants gave birth to a protest march that went along the Domitian, continuing for 10 kilometers.

The Africans blocked and choked highway traffic for hours, reversing and setting fire to rubbish bins, overturning and damaging with sticks and claves parked cars, and also destroyed some shops and attacked two buses of the town causing the latch and force quit of passengers.

The mayor of Castel Volturno, Francesco Nuzzo, and the prefecture of Caserta organized during the day, a meeting with some prominent members of the community of African descent bringing calm. [18]

The violence unleashed also caused considerable tension in the Italian community, so much so that it was feared some retaliation towards Africans.

The unexpected urban guerrilla warfare waged by the African community and the escalation of violence brought by the Casalesi clan in Caserta led to the creation of a special committee at the Interior Ministry on September 20 with the presence of the Minister of the Interior, Roberto Maroni, the head police, Antonio Manganelli, and other political and military figures, and the consequent sending 400 special agents and investigators to control the security in order to prevent future massacres:

"After a thorough evaluation of the law and order situation it was decided to intensify control of the territory and strike hard organized crime, helps to maximize investigative activities and intelligence to identify the perpetrators of the recent murders, for the capture of fugitives and those responsible for criminal activity, for which, where illegal immigrants, will be launched as quickly as possible expulsion procedures.
It will be finally submitted by the Minister of the Interior to the Council of Ministers of the hypothesis of a more flexible use of the military not only for urban areas, but also to other critical areas, after an evaluation of the National Committee for the order and security public. »
(Final Report of the Committee on the facts of Castel Volturno.])
Assumptions on the motivations of the massacre
On the reasons that led the splinter group of Bristle to make the massacre were made several assumptions. The first explanations have suggested a settling of scores inside the Casalesi clan, aimed at control of the drug trade and prostitution run by the Nigerian mafia on behalf of the Camorra. This hypothesis, however, was denied by the judicial investigation, which pointed out the strangeness of African victims compared to trafficking.

One of the assumptions made after the massacre, proposed by Roberto Saviano, author of the bestseller "Gomorrah," and Franco Roberti, deputy prosecutor and head of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Naples, ricondurrebbe instead the episode with a message that the mafia wanted give African immigrant communities in view of the redevelopment projects of the Domitian coast - a bargain by tens of millions of euro - in an attempt to drive more easily investment intended to create a tourist area in the area. Behind the massacre would hide the will to make a kind of ethnic cleansing of the area, hunting immigrants with which it was thought impossible to come to terms with and control.

The massacre may therefore have represented a first act of intimidation toward an immigrant community of about 13,000 people, including regular and irregular, which came to count about 60% of the inhabitants of Castel Volturno. An expanding community, that maybe today the mafia wanted to stop and cancel.

arrests
On 22 September 2008 he was arrested the first suspect, Alfonso Cesarano, affected by the Camorra Casalesi clan in home detention, found in her parents' home, in Green Bay, the same place where she was killed the first victim of the massacre, Antonio Celiento .

In a maxioperazione mafia carabinieri took place the same month, the Casalesi clan suffered a blow with the arrest of 107 people, held prominent elements of the association, some of which are on the list of 30 most wanted fugitives in Italy. Among those arrested include Alessandro Cirillo and Oreste Spagnuolo, considered, along with the boss Bristle, the main coordinators.

On 14 January 2009 he was arrested the leader of the Casalesi mass murderer, Joseph Brisson, who was also on the list of 30, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison and deemed instigator of various massacres and murders, including one hour of Castel Volturno.

process
The trial for the massacre of Castel Volturno began November 12, 2009 at the Court of Assizes of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, the six impututati: Joseph Brisson, David Garnet, Hallux Antonio, Alessandro Cirillo, Oreste Spagnuolo and Giovanni Letizia (Quest 'last became associate justice) are accused of killing a terrorist objective aggravated by racial hatred, murder and attempted murder.

Judgment of First Instance
The first-instance rulings were issued on 14 April 2011, the court sentenced to life imprisonment Joseph Brisson, David Garnet, Alessandro Cirillo (acquitted for the murder) and Giovanni Letizia. While he was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment Antonio Hallux.

The courts have upheld the prosecution's case with regard to the aggravating circumstance of racial hatred and terrorist purposes, an event unprecedented in the judicial history of the Camorra.

Judgment of Appeal
On 21 May 2013, the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Naples issued the ruling on appeal, confirming the life sentence for Joseph Brisson, David Garnet, Alexander Cyril and John Letizia; Hallux Antonio has received an increase of penalty, from 23 years in the first instance to 28 years and 6 months. The court upheld the aggravating circumstance of racial hatred but ruled that for the purposes of terrorism.

cassation
On 30 January 2014, the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence for Joseph Brisson, John Letizia, Alessandro Cirillo and David Granato and the penalty to 28 years and 6 months imprisonment for Hallux Antonio; the court has also recognized the aggravating circumstance of racial hatred has ruled that while terrorism.

As for the civilian aspects were calculated for compensation Ayimbora € 200,000, a sum that will go to the heirs of his disappearance having an aneurysm, also awarded damages to the towns of Castel Volturno and Casal di Principe, the social center of Caserta Ex Canapificio Association and Mo Basta.

by wikipedia