Rome, 5 October (LaPresse) – ‘No decision was made about who would return first and who would return later. We were presented with a series of documents and asked whether or not to sign them.’ This is what Saverio Tommasi, a journalist from Fanpage.it who was on board the Global Sumud Flotilla, said on the sidelines of the newspaper's festival in Rome, describing the situation regarding the return of the Italians detained in Israel. ‘None of us decided to sign the first document submitted,’ explains the reporter, "which was one that required an admission of guilt. We did not commit any crime; we were a humanitarian movement.‘ During our detention, Tommasi continued, we did not have the ’opportunity to speak with a lawyer of our choice, meeting with a judge without the presence of any lawyer, not even one we did not choose." The second document, on the other hand, asked us ‘if we were aware that, according to Israel, what we were doing was illegal and therefore requested repatriation within 72 hours,’ even though ‘the 72 hours represented an uncertain time frame.’ Finally, there was a third document that ‘requested that we remain there longer, as a choice of political and social struggle.’ Tommasi therefore states that ‘I, like many others, signed, without admitting guilt, to be repatriated as soon as possible’, specifying, however, that ‘among the 15 Italians currently detained in Israeli prisons, there are not only people who have decided for political reasons to stay longer, but there are people who would have liked to return home as soon as possible, just like us’. Finally, Tommasi also responds to the question regarding the return to Italy by scheduled flight: ‘It was a Turkish Airlines flight that flew from Israel to Istanbul, and from there we took another flight that brought us back to Italy. Was it from the Foreign Ministry? It was a scheduled flight, and I don't know who paid for the tickets,’ he concludes.
© Copyright LaPresse
