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Andy: the appeal process

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The appeal trial for the murderer of Andy Rocchelli will take place in Milan on the 29th and 30th September and 1st October.
In addition to the death of two journalists and the injuring of a third one, on the 24th May 2014, our freedom of information was strongly undermined. The three of them were unarmed, far from the conflict and they have been intentionally targeted.
After many years of research and a long trial, in 2019 Vitaly Markiv has been convicted to 24 years in prison for his active role in the ambush. He is Italo-Ukrainian and served in the Ukrainian militia on the Karachun hill, from where the mortar shots had been fired.
The cover up silence of the Ukrainian army and politics on the fact has been replaced by the Pavia Court, thanks to an historical sentence underlining the intentional nature of the shooting against Andy Rocchelli and his colleagues.
The Milan Court is now expected to judge such sentence. The family, the  the association of journalists and anyone involved in the trial will have to face again the events of 2014.
We, as Volpi Scapigliate, believe that independently from the outcome, it is necessary to confirm once again our support to the Rocchelli family and most of all to all the journalists that daily risk their lives for keeping us informed on what happens around the world.
The photos exhibited in some bars and other places in Pavia, illustrate the reality with the objectivity and emotional strength that Andy always put in his work. For us, this is an homage to his work and his memory.
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The 6th anniversary. Andy and the Volpi Scapigliate – 24th May 2020

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Someone of us, Volpi Scapigliate, used to hang out with Andy Rocchelli when he was a young guy, but then losing track of each other while growing up, as sometimes happen. In our memory he was a cheerful and smiling guy. Then after that cursed day 6 years ago, we learnt about the astonishing depth of his work as an adult.

It has been a suffering path, but it has also been a discovery experience. We started with the intention of finding the truth and the justice for a friend, but we happened to find ourselves taking notes and learn about journalism, professionalism and life from a character that left us with much more than what we could imagine.

Andrea has taught us that values as human rights and freedom are not abstract ideals, but can be concrete goals when looked at them through stories and their characters, like the Sloviansk’s children in their bunker. Andy reminds us that for  telling those stories and for creating our own stories, there are not shortcuts: hard work, zero compromises and an extremely high price to pay sometimes. He united us around a universe of stories and hopes in the possibility to do our little piece for shaping a better world.

An year ago now we were finalizing the “Da Barriere a Ponti” project, a venture that showed once more who Andy Rocchelli was and who we want to be as Volpi Scapigliate. Somebody that can inspire a bunch of teenager, millannials that are used to spend their days watching their mobiles, to study instead for months Andy’s work and translate it in thoughts and images, for then filling up the city with colours. Colours on concrete, stories of war and peace, freedom, communications, knowledge, violated rights. It has been a very important experience for them and of us too.

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“La Volpe Scapigliata”: the thread between Andy and Mario

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We read it all in one breath.

We cried, we smiled, we got upset. And then all over again. It was tough. And we would never wanted to miss it.

Mario Calabresi is a careful listener and an amazing storyteller, but he also knows very well what it means to die in the line of duty, to be killed, leaving behind little children. He had the courage to tell about himself, writing about the story of his family in a tough book: “Pushing further the night”. Today he tell about Andy, as a link between two different generations, but a destiny somehow similar.

To listen to the “La Volpe Scapigliata” podcast, led us to recall all the memories of the last 6 years in once, starting from that horrific 24th May 2014. We re-experienced the places. The seminary where the funeral was held. The trial in that tiny little courtroom. The walk among red poppers, last Spring. The last hearing in the Sala dell’Annunciata in Pavia, and that emotion never experienced before. It was as release on top of the permanent grief.

Today we feel all connected by that thin thread connecting the institutions, the journalism, the truth and the justice, as well as the thirst for knowledge and telling the stories that were so deeply-rooted in Andy. 

Today we are connected with them. With Mario, with Andy. With their families. Trying to push their nights a bit further again.

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