VIDEO | Ilaria Alpi, Federica Sciarelli: “The investigations should not be closed”. He would have turned 63 today

The Ilaria Alpi case must not be closed: "The murderers have not been found and neither have the instigators, do not close the investigations": the words of Federica Sciarelli on the sidelines of the 'We do not archive' initiative in the Chamber

ROME – “Absolutely yes, God forbid. We have to fight and give it our all. In our small way, we at ‘Who saw him?’, got Hashi out of prison after 17 years. Usually we discover the guilty, but in this case we discovered an innocent And it’s a very important thing, because it was able to reopen, with the review process, in some way investigations by Ilaria Alpi, which must never be closed given that the murderers have not been found and neither have the instigators“. This is how the journalist Federica Sciarelli responded, when asked by Dire about the importance of investigative journalism and whether it still represents a value, today in Rome on the occasion of the conference entitled ‘A star called Ilaria Alpi (1994-2024)’, an event final part of a project which saw Italian schools as protagonists and which at its center has the memory of the Rai journalist, Ilaria Alpi, killed in Mogadishu together with the operator Miran Hrovatin on 20 March 1994.

It was thanks to the show ‘Chi l’ha visto?’ that the Somali Hashi Omar Assan was exonerated, initially sentenced to 26 years in prison for having participated together with a commando of 7 people in the assassination of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin. Hashi had been accused by a witness, Ahmad Ali Rage, who claimed to have witnessed the murder. After the testimony, Rage had disappeared from the radar of the Italian justice system, but was found thanks to the work of the editorial team of the program hosted by Federica Sciarelli and, in front of the cameras, he admitted to having been paid to make those accusations >. Declaration, that, which led to the review and subsequent acquittal of Hashi Omar Assan.

TODAY IN THE CHAMBER THE ‘WE DO NOT ARCHIVE’ INITIATIVE

Today, Friday 24 May, the Tg3 journalist, Ilaria Alpi, would have celebrated her birthday, if on 20 March 1994 she had not been killed in Mogadishu, together with the operator Miran Hrovatin, for their investigations into arms trafficking and waste in the shadow of International Cooperation. The journalist was 33 years old. And today, Friday 24th, in the Chamber, in the Hall of Parliamentary Groups (in Via di Campo Marzio, 74), an initiative promoted by the “We do not archive” Community will be held, which includes a series of protagonists in recent decades of the commitment to the truth about those murders, to discover those responsible and lead the way. The initiative will serve to forcefully relaunch this need, also in light of the recent meeting held by a delegation from the Network with the leaders of the Rome Prosecutor’s Office.

The day (from 10am to 12.30pm) will feature girls and boys from schools who participated with their works in the project “A star named Ilaria Alpi”. Chaired by Mariangela Grainer and Walter Verini, the appointment will begin with the greetings of the vice-president of the Chamber, Anna Ascani, and with those of Fnsi, Order of Journalists, Usigrai, Fondazione Murialdi, Article 21. The journalist Federica Sciarelli and Walter Veltroni will remember my colleague and friend Ilaria and Miran and the battles of these thirty years. These moments will be interspersed with readings by Cristiana Capotondi from Gigliola Alvisi’s book on the Tg3 journalist and the screening of video extracts from the film “The cruelest of days” by Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani. In the second part, the journalist Giulia Bosetti and Grainer herself will coordinate the illustration of the works by the students. For accreditations write to: pd. ufficiostampa@camera.it, indicating name, surname, card number and any instruments such as cameras or video cameras.