The wife of the Romanian murdered in Napoli, under Camorra’s threat

The tragedy of Petru Barladeanu, the Romanian killed in Napoli on May 26, is again making the headlines, after a CCTV recording from the station was released to the public. The sequences recorded the Romanian man’s last moments at Cumana tube station and his wife’s desperation. Several news programmes from Italy reported on the man’s death and on the indifference of the passers-by. Mirela Boboaca, the wife of the deceased, returned to Romania for fear of the local mafia: „I saw them with my own eyes, when they killed my husband. And I’m scared now, because they could find both me and my baby and do the same to us.”

Napoli solicitor Frederico Zinna, president of the „Partenopea Dacia” Romanian-Italian Association, was bequeathed with the rights and responsibilities to take care of Barladeanu’s family legal issues. He submitted a request at the Prosecutor’s office in Napoli, asking for Petru Barladeanu remaining family to be awarded with the title of „innocent Camorra victims”. According to the law, the deceased’s children could benefit from a 260 euros monthly fee, granted by the Italian authorities.

„We are currently waiting for an answer. There is a national fund for mafia’s victims and we believe that Petru’s children are entitled to benefit from it. If the grant is not awarded in the first instance, we will take it to court. It isn’t a simple procedure and it has to face a lot of bureaucracy. But we hope that the authorities will support us”, the solicitor said.

The authorities in Napoli, together with a group of associations, have laid a bronze plaque at the death scene, inscribed with „In memory of Petru Barladeanu, Romania 1976-Napoli 2009, innocent Camorra victim.”The commemoration was joined by several Napoli officials and mayor Rosa Russo Iervolino, which leads us to believe that our trying to receive help for his family will be successful” Zinna added.

The solicitor believes that tragedy would have also taken place had there been an Italian instead a Romanian citizen. „The help would have arrived too late. The ambulance came after half an hour, despite the fact that the hospital is very close. But I believe that had there been a Napolitano shot in the street, the public indignation would have been greater. We would have seen street manifestations, the newspapers would have written about it for several more weeks. Unfortunately, we heard about the death of a stranger, the indifference was huge, even though everybody in Cumana knew Petru and thought him to be a nice and decent person. If this video hadn’t surfaced after 20 days, Petru would have been long forgotten.”

Petru Lunganu came from Lungani, Iasi county (North-East Romania). He arrived in Italy six years ago. He earned his living by singing in the tubes together with the mother of his children, Mirela Boboaca. Upon moving to Italy, the two left behind in Romania a 10 ear old daughter. Their youngest child came to life in a shack from a Gypsy camp, where he lived together with his parents when the tragedy occurred.