LECCE – “A young man, in visibly compromised physical condition, described as lacking clarity, could not be thrown into a cell and forgotten. He could not have been left without water and food for a considerable number of hours so as to cause his death.” This was the core of the motivations with which, on 15 December 2016, the judges of the Court of Assizes of Lecce those allegedly responsible for the death of the banker from Lecce were condemned Simone Rendawho died on March 3, 2007, in the prison of the Mexican city of Playa del Carmen, at just 34 years old. A long and troubled judicial process also dictated by the lack of collaboration shown by the authorities of the Central American country where, as is known, corruption is rampant and which has never allowed the defendants, all of them, to be “dragged” into an Italian courtroom. contumacious.
Confirmation of the requests for first degree conviction was requested by the Advocate General Giovanni Gagliotta at the end of the indictment recalling the sentence in the bunker room of the Lecce prison before the judges of the Court of Assizes of Appeal (President Teresa Liuni) who postponed the trial to October 10 when they will discuss the lawyer Paola Balducci (replaced in the classroom by her colleague Tommaso Stefanizzo) for the victim’s family members and the defenders of the six accused, the lawyers Alessandra Tomasi, Leonardo Maiorano, Valerio Centonze And Nicola Leo.
Shortly after 4.30 pm on December 15, 2016, the Court of Assizes of Lecce (President Roberto Tanisi) sentenced to 25 years in prison Arceno Parra Cano; Pedro May Balam, deputy directors of the Municipal Prison and head of the detention service; Hermilla Valero Gonzalezqualifying judge on duty e Najera Sanchez Enrique, prison guard on duty; 21 years, however, were inflicted on Luis Alberto Landerosother prison guard on duty as well as for Gomez Cruz, head of the prison reception office. In the first instance trial, there was room for a couple of acquittals for not having committed the crime in favor of Jose Alfredo Gomez And Francisco Javier Friasofficers on duty at the tourist police of the municipality of Playa del Carmen.
In court, the defendants ended up with charges of voluntary manslaughter and the violation of Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. A historic trial beyond the Court’s verdict because it was the first case in which, thanks to the 1984 New York Convention, the trial of those responsible for a murder that occurred outside the victim’s country of origin was celebrated in the country of origin of the deceased person. Just like the death of Simone Renda, which occurred in a foreign country, abandoned and dehydrated.
The case of the death of the 34-year-old from Lecce is a fact now engraved in the news pages. Renda died on March 3, 2007 in the prison of the Mexican city where he had been for days on holiday. He ended up in handcuffs on March 1st (two days before his death) on charges of drunkenness and disturbing the peace and locked up in a security cell. Although the doctor on duty at the municipal prison had diagnosed hypertension and a suspected heart attack, Renda was held in custody without receiving any healthcare. Without water and food for 42 hours, he died completely dehydrated.
For the Lecce judges, Renda remained detained in a cell in a foreign state without any possibility of defense in a state of confusion that would have precluded any form of complaint, beyond the legal deadline and in painful conditions. Renda was left without a change of clothes, without food and without water for an “unseemly time”. A chain of omissions that would have led to the death of the 34-year-old from Lecce. On the basis of medical-legal advice, if Renda had been able to drink, hydrate and nourish himself appropriately, his liver condition would not have gone into necrosis.
So much so that it led the judges of first instance to speak of the “complacency and superficiality” of the defendants who were well aware of the very serious conditions of the tourist. All public officials, people officially classified in the Mexican State who were required to respect the law and human dignity and who, instead, seriously violated.
Sponsored Link
