VICTORY – The Tunisian arrested as a suspect in a crime by the police on Thursday evening will appear before the judge of the preliminary investigations of the Court of Ragusa in the next few hours. The provision was issued by the Ragusa prosecutor’s office against Wajdi Zaouali, 30 years old, a Tunisian resident in Vittoria, already known in the archives and previously subjected to the security measure of probation for another reason. The 30-year-old is held responsible for the crimes of multiple murder and attempted murder committed in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, when, by sprinkling flammable liquid on his parents’ bedroom, the corridor and the entrance to the house permanently occupied by his father, mother and his sisters and setting fire with a lighter, caused the death of his mother Mariem Sassi, 55, and his sister Sameh, 34, due to the serious burns they suffered. The 57-year-old father and the 19-year-old younger sister remain hospitalized in serious conditions. Wajdi Zouali was locked up in Ragusa prison, in isolation and monitored 24 hours a day, at the disposal of the judicial authority which requested the validation of the arrest by the investigating judge of the Ragusa court. The Tunisian had been stopped at the bus station, where he was trying to escape. Meanwhile, a fundraiser has been started to help the survivors of the Tunisian family unit. In addition to the head of the family and his youngest daughter hospitalized in serious conditions, there is the other daughter who has returned from Turin, where she studies at university. On the day of the funeral, the municipal administration of Vittoria proclaimed city mourning.
THE CHRONICLE OF ABSURD TRAGEDY
Moments of terror with 2 women dead last night in Piazza Trinità, in the heart of the San Giovanni district. 4 people engulfed in fire were writhing and screaming in front of the shocked residents, a couple of whom, with remarkable coolness, got blankets from their homes to put out the human torches, of which the mother and eldest daughter, as mentioned, were missing. they did it. A nightmare scenario that saw the destruction of an entire Tunisian family due to the crazy gesture of one of the members, a 30-year-old suffering from serious mental disorders, who, due to family resentments that have never subsided, sprinkled petrol in his sleep and set fire to the mother, father and 2 sisters, all of whom went from sleep to terror in a matter of seconds.
The small house was immediately engulfed in flames, while the 4 members of the family quickly gained the exit, emerging into the open air completely engulfed in flames, amidst screams of terror and pain. Scenes that the neighbors will not forget for the rest of their lives. The arsonist’s mother, a 55-year-old, died a few hours later at the Guzzardi hospital in Vittoria. The 34 year old daughter will instead die at the Cannizzaro in Catania in the early evening. The 57-year-old father and his other 19-year-old daughter are hospitalized in very serious conditions and the latter has undergone delicate surgery to reduce the deep burns spread over 50% of her body. A third sister was saved only because she attends university and lives outside Vittoria. The woman returned to the city in these hours after learning of the tragedy.
The police immediately set out on the trail of the Tunisian arsonist, already known in the archives, who had disappeared in the meantime. The man was then tracked down at the bus station and placed in custody by the police. It remains to be understood what fueled the lucid madness of the 30-year-old, who, in order not to give his relatives a chance, had also slashed the tires of the 2 cars he owned, parked under the same house set on fire with the 4 people inside, while they slept. The man used a lighter and flammable liquid to set fire to his relatives and the house, which sustained extensive damage, compromising the stability and usability of the entire building.
Greater damage was averted thanks to the timely intervention of the firefighters, and, as mentioned, the intervention of some brave residents proved to be decisive, who, displaying quick wits, put out the flames that were enveloping the 3 victims with blankets . But unfortunately this was not enough to save the mother’s life, while the Tunisian’s father and 2 sisters are currently fighting between life and death. The relationships between the 29-year-old and the rest of the family, perfectly integrated and well-liked in Vittoria, had never been idyllic, but no one could have even remotely hypothesized that family disagreements could one day lead to such a tragedy.
