«I felt hurt, saddened. I went to collect a prize awarded in memory of Giogiò in Benevento and the guarantor for prisoners’ rights, Samuele Ciambriello, entered the room. He didn’t shake my hand, he didn’t say a word to me: in fact, he sat behind me.” Thus begins the outburst of Daniela Di Maggio, the mother of Giovanbattista Cutolo, the young musician murdered last August in Piazza Municipio in Naples after a dispute over a parking space.
But Daniela is not only bitter about formal issues: «A young lawyer spoke out underlining how she was against the tightening of penalties for minors who commit murders, who indeed in his opinion must be protected and re-educated. Absurd words, out of reality, but above all pronounced without respect in the presence of a mother whose wonderful son was murdered in his prime, an artist with a promising and brilliant future.” Daniela, therefore, felt offended and decided to leave the room without collecting the prize, which had been awarded in Giogiò’s memory as part of the «My friend Massimo» festival dedicated to Troisi.
Before leaving, however, he explained his point of view to the audience: «Many young people have been affected by the tragic story of my son’s death and they fight to be on the side of justice and beauty. We must prevent very young criminals from destroying other lives and making other families suffer. The only way is punish them in an exemplary manner, making it clear that violence is not tolerated. We need rigor and firmness.” At the end of the first degree trial, in fact, Giogiò’s seventeen-year-old murderer was sentenced to 20 years, as the prosecution had requested: that day his parents stated: “Justice has been done”. Then Daniela’s dig at Ciambriello: «I’ve been waiting for a phone call from her for nine months. Prime Minister Meloni, right-wing and left-wing politicians have expressed their closeness to me, but evidently the guarantor for the rights of prisoners does not believe in doing so.”
Samuele Ciambriello does not intend to respond to Daniela Di Maggio – who was a guest at Sanremo last February – since there was no conflict between the two of them. He simply points out that Giogiò’s mother was sitting in the front row, while he had been assigned a seat in the second row. It shows “closeness to a woman affected by such great pain”but reiterates his point of view: «Punishment must have a re-educational function. Rather than punish these kids we need to look after thembecause one of them saved is an example for many others.”
