Photo with dead people inside city cemetery. This happened in Uggiano La Chiesa (a small village in the interior of Salento with a population of more than 4 thousand inhabitants which is famous for its bread and oil). It happened on June 13 when the injection went viral. In short, in chat and on social media, although in the village they swear that the selfie was taken some time before. The cemetery workers – residents said – were busy digging up the bodies for later transfer. An intervention that, bureaucratically, is required at least ten years after the burial. In the cemetery, under such circumstances, there were residents wandering around.
Fifty-seven years old, worker at an external company, had had legal problems in the past but no definite psychiatric deficits. Many people in town know him. In the photo he is wearing a T-shirt and work gloves with his mask pulled up to cover his chin. He asked to be photographed with the dead man.
A request fulfilled by someone (no one knows who). Residents lifted the body with one hand – as if it were still alive – and hugged it with their right hand while posing. Someone positioned himself in front and took a photo of the 57-year-old man – who even sketched a smile – with a corpse next to him in a state of even less advanced decomposition.
This selfie circulated widely in chat and social media, despite the entire community’s efforts to delete it everywhere and thus avoid the inevitable media spotlight in a small town where news is sporadic and isolated. “It is true – the mayor commented to Repubblica Stefano Andrea De Paolacriminal lawyer – we hope that this fact, however unpleasant, will remain confined to my community which, immediately, distances itself from such attitudes. I myself reported the incident out of respect for my community.”
Complaints and echoes of the photo quickly reached the barracks. The Carabinieri obtained a selfie and identified the worker who was reported on charges of humiliation of the corpse “exposed in an undignified manner – investigators report in the indictment – by placing it in an upright position next to him, offending the decency and respect due to the corpse”. The worker was never questioned during the investigation and has not even defended himself in recent months.
He also recently challenged the criminal conviction order to stand trial and pointed out that the selfie with the deceased person was taken in a very naive way and, most importantly, without wanting to offend the memory and memory of the deceased person. Who knows, the judge will think the same on February 5, the day the sentence is due.
