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MAZARA DEL VALLO – “At first they locked us in an underground bunker, but Giacomo and Bernardo weren’t there.” What happened to them? ”, We told ourselves. Suddenly, we saw them arrive with bloody faces ”. Fabio Giacalone’s voice bounces off the radio from the Antarctic fishing boat sailing from Libya to the port of Mazara. “They were beaten,” he says, “because their ships had managed to escape. An affront to the Libyans.”
On that dramatic first of September, not only Medinea and Antarctica stopped, but also Anna Madre and Natalino. The commanders were summoned to the patrol boat with the documents of the boats. Soon after, two fishing boats managed to escape. “And they got mad at Giacomo and Bernardo,” whispers Marika Calandrino, wife of Giacomo Giacalone, Anna Madre’s commander: “I understood when the first photograph of Libya arrived after the kidnapping. My husband’s face was swollen, one eye almost closed, and red neck. When we felt after liberation I immediately asked him, “Are you okay?” And he made me understand that something bad had happened. ” Bernardo Salvo’s brother-in-law, Vito Gancitano, is bitter: “He’s not even the Natalino’s commander, he’s the helmsman. When the Libyans stopped them, he found himself getting on the patrol boat. They will have mistaken him for the commander, and they took revenge. of the “. Even Bernardo Salvo’s family understood it when they looked at the first photographs that arrived in Italy after the kidnapping: “Until now we have not said anything – explains Vito – the moment was delicate, but in those images you can clearly see the swollen face and an arm black. . Now we want to know what happened. “
Fabio Giacalone’s father, Pietro, also a fisherman for many years, clenches his fists while his son still talks about his companions with a bloody face. “Why did Farnesina keep telling us that our boys were treated well? – She gets angry – It wasn’t true.” The whisper of “short waves” brings other dramatic stories. “The Italians put them all in a dark room, four by four meters wide,” says Fabio Giacalone. “We were subjected to constant humiliation and psychological violence. They arrived in the middle of the night and shouted:” Now we are going to free you. “And instead they took us to another prison. We have changed four, more Tunisians. Only in the last month They moved us to a palace, which was a more decent place. ” The voice comes and goes, communication is disturbed. Fabio’s father cannot rest easy: “I told my son that they should not go there, it is too dangerous. I said it the night before leaving. And then, while they were traveling, I saw on the computer where they had arrived, I immediately called the commander to warn you. ” Now, on the same frequency, the stories of Piero Marrone, the Medinea commander, also run: “We did it out of fear – he tells the owner, Marco Marrone – we thought we couldn’t do it. Inside those dark cells they treated us as if we were terrorists, humiliation after humiliation. Now we are so tired and we just have to go home. ”The owner asks:“ Did they make you eat? ”He replies:“ We only had a decent meal, the morning Conte arrived ” And how did you organize yourself with the clothes? “We stayed with the same things for weeks. Then a prisoner, who was there for who knows what, gave us T-shirts, panties and a bar of soap. “
The navigation is still long. “They will arrive on Sunday morning – explains Marco Marrone – and it will be a great joy”. However, before hugging their relatives again, the fishermen will have to be swabbed for Covid. Only if it is positive, there will be a quarantine. “It will be the Christmas we have wanted for a hundred days, all together at home,” says Marika Calandrino.
