Officer burned at Trapani: detainee pours boiling oil on inspector
A penitentiary police inspector suffered severe burns at Trapani House of Detention. The Consipe union denounces an attempted premeditated murder.
Boiling oil poured on inspector at Trapani prison
A penitentiary police inspector was rushed to hospital after being hit on the head by a jet of boiling oil in the Mediterranean wing of Trapani House of Detention. According to ANSA Cronaca, the liquid was allegedly thrown deliberately from above whilst the officer was passing on the lower floor.
Mimmo Nicotra, national president of the Confederation of Penitentiary Unions (Consipe), described the incident as "a cowardly attempted murder, premeditated and committed with unprecedented ferocity", ruling out that it was merely an assault. The colleague, who suffered serious injuries, was admitted to hospital in grave condition.
Nicotra placed the incident within a broader picture of violence against officers in Sicily: "Sicily is now an open powder keg". Just days earlier, a serious riot at Siracusa-Cavadonna prison had seen detainees climb onto roofs, sections devastated, cameras destroyed and dozens of police officers hospitalised after being attacked or forced to jump from several metres high.
The Consipe president issued a series of urgent requests to the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Penitentiary Administration (Dap): the immediate transfer out of the region of those responsible for the attack, the application of special regime with criminal proceedings for attempted aggravated murder, the urgent evacuation of Sicilian facilities — starting with Cavadonna and Trapani, described as "on the verge of collapse due to overcrowding and staff shortages" — and the installation of anti-throw netting and screens, as well as a ban on keeping containers of caustic liquids in high-risk sections.
Nicotra finally announced that, in the absence of concrete responses from Rome and the Regional Magistracy within a few hours, Consipe would declare a state of national agitation: "The Penitentiary Police will no longer act as a human shield to the State's inertia".
Source: ANSA Cronaca