“Carlo is innocent and sick”, appeal to the Pope for an Italian detained in Papua New Guinea

He has been stuck in Papua New Guinea for more than four years, accused of drug trafficking first, then of international terrorism. He is the Italian Carlo D’Attanasio, now 55 years old, who in 2019 left on a sailing boat for a round-the-world trip and instead found his last stop right in the oceanic country. He has been stuck in the country for 4 years, and is suffering from colon cancer. For this reason Juanita Costantini, who had a son with Carlo, entrusts to Adnkronos a real appeal for Pope Francis, in the hope that the Pontiff’s trip to Papua New Guinea can succeed in unblocking the situation.

“In March 2020 – Juanita Costantini underlines – Carlo arrives in Papua New Guinea and decides to stop for a 5-month break, when, about to leave again to finish his feat, a small airplane crashes on the island immediately after takeoff. Inside the aircraft, the police find 611 kilos of cocaine, probably destined for Australia. Two days later, two Papuans are stopped and Carlo is, without any explanation, arrested. Accused. Imprisoned. After a few months, however, the charges against Carlo of drug trafficking begin to waver. The local press itself begins to doubt the charges against Carlo and, since they have not found evidence, the charge changes from drug trafficking to international terrorism”. Then, everything stops, between trials that are not held and lawyers who disappear.

“In the meantime, Carlo is forced into a small, dilapidated cell. With many other prisoners. Without toilets. A human ordeal begins. His cries of innocence lose their strength. And Carlo – continues Juanita in her appeal to the Pope – begins to show continuous ailments. Excruciating pain. Hence the request to undergo diagnostic tests, with all the delays that this entails. At the beginning of March, after a year and a half of waiting, the colonoscopy arrives. And the diagnosis is a 10-centimeter colon adenocarcinoma. Carlo has undergone surgery, has two enterostomies, is losing blood, is cachectic, has an open wound in his abdomen, is asthenic and is taking painkillers. Anemic. Physically and morally he is exhausted, Your Holiness. He urgently needs further surgery. And hope and prayer”. Because, Juanita concludes, “I have been waking up and going to sleep for five years with the absence of my love and I share his pain every moment inside me. And when I look into the sweet eyes of our little Enea I no longer know how to answer his questions and guarantee the serenity he deserves”. (by Lorenzo Capezzuoli Ranchi)