Burcei. How was 2024?

“Better than all the others. Much.”

Beniamino Zuncheddu is in his sister Augusta's hot living room, on the first floor of a house overlooking a freezing fog that takes away all depth from the view: "I'm lucky, she and my brother-in-law took me in." He is at the end of his first year as a free man, after 33 years spent in prison, convicted for the Sinnai massacre in 1991. A sensational miscarriage of justice certified on January 26 by the sentence of the review trial. His round and finally relaxed face frames his regained smile: "I've grown my teeth, I've fixed my eye." He is savoring normality piece by piece in the town where it all began: he was 26, today he is a full sixty. It's time to take stock: "Thirty-three years in prison without having done anything is a very long time, one day is already long. I've lived more inside than outside: when they arrested me I should have turned 27. I've been inside for a lifetime."

Did you take the trip you dreamed of?

«I have traveled a lot, to present the book. But not on my own yet».

Swimming in the sea?

"Not this summer. As I recover a bit, I become familiar with the outside world, maybe there will be a trip and even the sea."

Health?

"I had my eye done, I was left with cataracts for four years. They examined me in Milan, the operation in Cagliari. I got my teeth. They told me that my cervical spine is broken, I can only take painkillers, I tried an infiltration in my shoulder. In prison I said many times that I was sick but for the doctors I was in excellent health".

The welcome of the country?

"Beautiful. Before and after and now. The day I came back it was full of billboards, people hugging me, fireworks. I didn't understand anything."

Disappointments?

«Not yet, at the moment.»

What is freedom?

"It's an appreciable thing. After you've been in a place like that you appreciate it, you appreciate everything. The important thing is to know that you can go to any place at any time. It wasn't like that. When I worked outside the prison during the day I couldn't have dinner at a friend's house because I had to be in Buoncammino at that time. I was a private citizen , at the Santa Barbara party at 8:30 in the evening the fun started and I had to go home. On Covid leave I had to sign in every morning at the Carabinieri, but the barracks in Burcei were no longer there, so I had to go to Sinnai: I don't have a driving license, my brother drove me, at our expense."

Vaccinated?

"No, I go to the doctor if I'm sick and I need to get a shot, if I'm well why do I have to go? Thank God I didn't get sick with Covid."

State compensation for half a life behind bars?

"You have to pay the bill right away or they'll send Equitalia to you. Every month they took 114 euros from me for the rent of the cell, they deducted it directly from my paycheck from my job in the restaurant. But if the State makes a mistake then there's no rush. The State should act po su fatu de su compensationu . I have to pay my debts."

2024?

"I was a pensioner without a pension."

How was it?

"Beautiful, relaxing, they're even going to make a film about my story, they've already come to see the area. It's beautiful when you open the door and not someone else. Luckily my sister and brother-in-law welcomed me, otherwise what do you do? Go live under a bridge or become a criminal. It happens to many to end up like this, because the State abandons you and it's your own business. Many end up back in prison, how many I've seen."

Love?

"No, for now I'm relaxing. We'll see later."

Did you meet Luigi Pinna, the survivor who testified that he recognized you at the time of the massacre?

"He always refused to see me."

And Mario Uda, the policeman who showed his photo to the witness before the identification?

"No way. They built a castle together with Lombardini and various others. The one who paid the price is me. I forgave the witness, but not the policeman. Thank goodness there are wiretaps, they saved me, otherwise my trial would not have been possible."

A gift you would like for Christmas?

"I've already had it, it's always Christmas. I don't want anything anymore."

Your day?

"I have to settle down, I don't remember the names of the people I meet: tu ses su fillu de ? In the morning I do something at home, then I go out, everyone stops me on the street. Around five or six with my friends we go to the bar, we chug a few birrixedda, we chat. They come to pick me up by car, walking is no good."

Paul Paolini

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