Marcello Palmisano: a videographer of the state broadcaster RAI who always worked hard, never pulled back, in love with his job. Behind his camera there was an honest storyteller of the reality. Marcello was 55 when he went to Mogadishu with Carmen Lasorella for a reportage for the Tg2 news programme. On the 9th February 1995 on board a Land Cruiser with Lasorella he was caught up in shooting between the escort and an armed group. In the furious fire fight Palmisano was hit in various parts of his body and the vehicle caught fire but Lasorella, although injured, fortunately managed to escape. The scene of the attack was filmed by a US helicopter during a normal reconnaissance flight. Later, there was talk of an episode to be seen in the context of a “war” between the multinational banana companies operating in Somalia and the interests linked to them. there was a hail of lawsuits, eleven of the attackers were identified but were never brought to justice.
(da Memorial Day of journalists killed by mafia and terrorism, Rome, 2008)
(Update by Alberta Del Bianco and Raffaella Della Morte)
Two investigations were opened on the ambush.
- 1995 – On the 13th February 1995 the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation conducted by the Public Prosecutor Pasquale Lapadura;
- 1995 – In March 1995 an investigation was opened in Venice coordinated by the prosecutor Felice Casson, following a complaint by the lawyer Eugenio Vassallo on behalf of five banana producers of a Somali company, against a company of the American group “Dole “A certain Sedi, brother-in-law of Duale, a local broker of the American company ‘Dole’, was said to have shot at the car of the two Italian journalists. No one has ever been brought to justice.
- 1997 – On May 26th 1997, the general prosecutor of Rome Raffaele De Luca Comandini declared there was no basis to proceed due to a lack of jurisdiction for the murder of the video operator. Marcello Palmisano was initially buried in the Verano Monumental Cemetery in Rome.
- 2007 – 12 years after his death, the body returned to his hometown, San Michele Salentino, at the behest of his wife Cristina and buried in an area of the cemetery dedicated to illustrious citizens.
