"I swear in front of everyone, I didn't mean to kill. I never did. I apologize to everyone. I'm sorry."

Thus ends the document delivered by Yari Fa to Judge Luca Melis, before the sentence that sentenced him to 10 years and 8 months for the murder of Fabio Piga , committed in Cagliari in 2024. Spontaneous statements written down in black and white, as his lawyer later clarified, because he was unable to speak.

"I have always respected the process and listened to everything in silence," the document reads. "Everything was said about me, my past, and my problems. I heard everything. I was described as being out of control."

Then the apology. "I'm immensely sorry for what happened," Yari Fa continues. "There's not a day that I don't think about it. There's not a night that I don't fall asleep thinking about that evening. Every night I think I've run out of regrets and I pray, but the next day I have even more."

The twenty-year-old reveals he wasn't able to write to the parents of the man he killed. "I didn't have the courage to write to Fabio Piga's family," he continues. "I couldn't. I always think they wouldn't have any use for my apologies and that my silence would be better. But they should know that that night I didn't mean to kill anyone and I would have cut my hand before reaching for the knife if I'd known how it would end. I struck blindly; I was scared . I had a man infinitely taller and stronger than me in front of me; I was alone and I was flying from one side to the other. Hurting, yes, scaring, yes, but only to get away and avoid being beaten again. I swear in front of everyone: I didn't mean to kill."

The excuses remain, but in all fairness it must be reiterated that, at least in this first-instance trial, the ruling tells a completely different story.

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