Ramy, investigation into cover-up closed: 4 Carabinieri officers at risk of trial for deleted videos

Investigation closed: four Carabinieri officers under investigation in the investigation into the death of Ramy Elgaml face trial. They are accused of various counts of obstructing investigations and aiding and abetting for having several videos deleted relating to the chase and accident that cost the boy his life, including the footage filmed by the man—Omar EM—who was dubbed the "super witness."

The chase and death of Ramy

The events date back to the night of November 24th. Ramy Elgaml was riding a motorcycle with his friend Fares Bouzidi , who was driving. Fares failed to stop at a Carabinieri checkpoint. An eight-kilometer chase ensued, ending tragically at the intersection of Via Ripamonti and Via Quaranta: the scooter crashed, Ramy died , and his friend was seriously injured. Fares himself and Antonio Lenoci, the Carabinieri officer driving the Gazelle that was chasing the young men, are already facing trial for vehicular homicide for those incidents.

That night, however, something else happened. Witnesses filmed the incident with their cell phones. And the videos were deleted at different times. This is why two notices of conclusion of the investigation were served in the last few hours by prosecutors Marco Cirigliano and Giancarla Serafini , along with Tiziana Siciliano , of the prosecutor's office headed by Marcello Viola .

The final investigation document—which usually precedes a request for indictment—in one case concerns two Carabinieri officers, aged 29 and 25, represented by Pietro Porciani and Michele Apicella , respectively. They are charged with obstructing investigations. According to prosecutors, they colluded to prevent, hinder, or mislead the investigation by forcing a witness, Amir E., "to delete from his cell phone nine files containing videos , just taken, relating to the various phases of the aforementioned road accident as well as the immediately following phases." The aggravating circumstance is alleged to be "committed through the destruction or damage , in whole or in part, of documents intended to be used as evidence or otherwise useful in discovering and ascertaining the crime."

The second investigation concerns two other soldiers and the video that was made to be deleted by the “super witness” Omar ES. He said he had made a video of the moments of the accident , but that two soldiers ordered him to delete it .

The words of the "super witness"

"At that moment I was still recording when a patrol car noticed it and approached me, asking for my ID and telling me to delete the video, adding that I could be charged. At that point I deleted the video," Omar stated in his statement . "I had filmed everything; I was practically at the traffic light, so I had to move quickly otherwise I would have been hit by the scooter and the car too. I haven't reviewed the video since I deleted it immediately, but I'm sure I filmed the entire sequence, both the chase and the impact."

The statement continues: "They said things like 'Delete the video immediately,' 'Show me you deleted it,' then they took a photo of my ID and added, 'Now get in the car because you'll get charged.' That's why I said I was forced to delete the video. I later learned from some lawyers that I wasn't obligated to delete the video and that they shouldn't have intimidated me."