The judicial authority should never take sides and the geopolitical issues related to the russian-ukrainian conflict must be left out of the court. This is one of the main points stated by the general Attorney Nunzia Ciaravolo in her indictment during the court hearing of October 15th at the appeals process for the murder of Andrea Rocchelli and Andrej Mironov.
During the latest weeks, similarly to what happened during the most intensive phases of the first degree trial, we had to witness all possible kinds of interference of politics in the field of justice. We saw senators showing up at the hearings. We heard of emails and phone calls aimed to influence the jury. There were demonstrations and documentaries. Last but not least, the inappropriate move by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who urged Giuseppe Conte to take action in order to free Vitaly Markiv, already sentenced to 24 years at that time.
We don’t think this is a private affair, the story of a Fenoglio’s Milton of our times, with history in the background. Andy’s murder is a public matter, we know that and we stated that many times. It has to do with human rights, with our right to be informed about facts that happen in the theatres of war. Hence, it has implications on the protection of whoever happens to be unwillingly at war, i.e. civilians. Ukrainian civilians, Donbass’ civilians as well. Therefore, it has political consequences. But this isn’t a political trial.
Some poisoners of wells are trying to represent this judicial story as a clash between clans. They act in bad faith as they want to free Markiv in order to score a point for the nationalist Ukrainian team. But they’re missing the point, since we are not watching a Ukraine-Russia match here. We are fighting for the rights and the protection of civilians to be reaffirmed everywhere, particularly in those critical situations where it’s so easy for a chain of command to make wrong decisions bringing to heinous crimes, such as the deliberated murder of unarmed journalists. It’s not a private affair. It is a different matter. It’s not about fighting each other. Like enemies. It’s about protecting people. All the people. Like the ones Andy depicted in his images. Donbass’ people. Now that we are shaping together the Europe of the future, please help us defend the primacy of justice over political barricades.