Emanuela Orlandi, the former policeman Digos: « The exchange with Agca asked after Wojtyla’s words ». That’s why the Pope’s appeal was central

“You never had trial of existence in girl’s life and the same Ali Agca, at the time detained in execution under penalty, in some way he dissociated himself from this request of his liberation. It came to the expiry of the ultimatum (on 20 July 1983, editor’s note) And Initiatives were not started for the concrete liberation of Ali Agca and no element was acquired that could argue that the girl was alive». Lidano Marchionneat the time commissioner chief of police in service at Digos, listened to in the hearing in front of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi and Mirella Gregoriwith a few words, the international track, that of the « exchange » between the attacker to John Paul II And the fifteen year old disappeared on June 22, 1983 (Here the yellow from start to finish).

« The chronology of the facts amazed me »

Marchionne explained to have dealt of the Orlandi case « Marginally », as « at the time I was serving to Digos and I had dealt with the events related to the attack on the Pontiff: When the request for the liberation of AGCA was brought up – as an exchange for the release of the girl – we were also involved in Digos « . The retired policeman added a consideration on the timing: «I was struck by the fact that the intervention of an association close to the attacker who asked for his liberation – he observed – he was done After the Pope, In the Angelus play, he had done nod to the disappearance of the girl and stimulated the goodwill of those who had responsibilities in managing that case « .

Wojtyla’s message

The passage is crucial, be careful … Wojtyla’s appeal of 3 July 1983 in favor of the daughter of the papal messenger showed that the disappearance could not be derubricated to a « escapade ». The analytical examination of the Words of John Paul II make the delicacy of the stakes understand: «I wish to express the lively participation With whom I am close to the Orlandi family – he scaled the Holy Father from the Apostolic Palace, at the end of the Angelus recitation – who is in the affliction for his daughter Emanuela, of 15 years old, who has not returned home since Wednesday 22 June. I share the anxieties and the anguished trepidation of the parents – he added – not losing hope in sense of humanity of whom he has responsibility of this case ». The key is in the lexical choice with which the Polish pontiff decided to turn to the kidnappers: from the invocation to the « sense of humanity » The awareness of John Paul II and the Curia environments can be deduced which it was seized, to be integrated As part of a blackmail Already started between the « managers » of the operation and the high ecclesiastical spheres.

The policeman: it was not removal

The scenario exam, in short, seems to strengthen the hypothesis of a conspiracyat the expense of the most banal, « ordinary » but no less terrible, of a disappearance linked to a bad encounter and possible abuse on the unfortunate Emanuela. It was Commissioner Marchionne himself who explained it to the parliamentary commission: « Until then the contacts were stimulated by the spread of the posters made by the familyhad passed directly to Orlandi’s family members to the telephones they had indicated as a address and the messages were substantially dictated from the intent to reassure the family « , tending «to give credit to the hypothesis that one was in the presence of a voluntary removal of the girl. Then, after the Pope’s intervention at the Angelus, there was a phone call in person who attracted these phone calls in the content that had been made in the first phase « and that » at the same time he fell the request for liberation of Ali AGCA in exchange for the release of Emanuela Orlandi».

The lack of « life test »

Here the witness refers to the « passage of hand » of the claims of the kidnapping from the first telephones, Pierluigi and Marioto the so -called « American»(Here his voice compared with that of the offender confess Marco Accetti), that from 5 July 1983 the real « goods » of the negotiation, or the release of Agca, a key character in that glimpse of the Cold War, began on the plate. But the negotiation he raised for one very simple reasonthe former Digos investigator concluded: «It came to the ultimatum they had set, but this negotiation did not go through because it was not there never feels certain of the girl’s life existence».

Go to all the news of Rome

<!–

Corriere della Sera è anche su Whatsapp. È sufficiente cliccare qui per iscriversi al canale ed essere sempre aggiornati.–>

Sign up for the Corriere Roma newsletter