The former commander of the crack Folgore regiment, General Enrico Celentano, has been placed under investigation in a probe into the 1999 alleged hazing death of 26-year-old paratrooper Emanuele Scieri in a Pisa barracks.
Celentano faces possible charges of aiding and abetting and
giving false information to prosecutors.
A breakthrough in the cold case came last August.
On August 2 a suspect was detained and Pisa Prosector
Alessandro Crini said he suspected that Scieri was a victim of
an episode of hazing at Pisa's Gamerra barracks.
He said that three people had been under investigation for
some time in relation to the case, but things speeded up, with a
suspect being held, as one of the former soldiers implicated was
about to leave the country and "it would have been complicated
to bring him back".
Crini said the suspects were being probed for homicide
because Scieri was "attacked by the bullies, even when he was on
the ground" and, although there was time to save Scieri after he
suffered his injuries, "the young man was left in agony".
In 2017 a parliamentary commission of inquiry concluded
that Scieri did not commit suicide, as Celentano had suggested,
but was attacked before he died.
The report, released after 20 months of work by the
commission, said that there was "a surprisingly high level of
tolerance towards hazing" at Pisa's Gamerra barracks.
The commission was launched after the young man's parents
vowed to fight for justice when prosecutors closed the book on
the case.
Scieri's mother expressed satisfaction.
"I always had faith that sooner or later we'll be able to
lift the lid and now I finally see the light of the truth at the
end of the tunnel," Isabella Guarino said.
"I am emotional, astounded, amazed - a mix of emotions.
"We are satisfied but no one can give us back Emanuele.
"The pain is constant because I don't have my son, who I
loved".
Scieri was found on August 16, 1999 at the foot of a
ladder connected to a parachute jump-training tower.
Autopsy results showed the man, a brand-new Folgore Brigade
trainee who had just arrived at the Gamerra barracks in Pisa,
suffered multiple injuries in a fall and survived for hours
before dying during the night between August 13 and 14.
The criminal investigation looked into the possibility that
the victim had been pushed or forced to climb up the tower,
while Army General Celentano, in a published interview soon
after the trainee's death, wondered publicly whether the
incident could have been the result of hazing.
According to one account, injuries to Scieri's hands were
consistent with him trying to stop himself sliding down the
tower to his death.
There was speculation at the time that a macho test of
strength may have been the prelude to Scieri slipping.
Prosecutors said homicide investigation did not produce
enough evidence to press any charges.
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