A long, but important thread about the project I am currently working on with my Italian colleagues: documentary called The Wrong Place. It has been recently under attack from Russian propaganda TV, Italian pro-Lukashenko&pro-Assad websites and a left-leaning weekly L’Espresso.
The documentary is an investigation of the killing of two journalists - Italian photographer Andrea Rocchelli and famous Russian dissident Andrei Mironov - in Eastern Ukraine. Rocchelli and Mironov were killed on May 24, 2014 near a railway passage in separatist-held Sloviansk
The passage was blocked by a cargo train, used by separatists as a barricade to shell the Ukrainian positions on Karachun hill. It was the frontline. This spot, as confirmed by other journalists, was very dangerous as there was heavy fighting in the area in previous days
Last year, an Italian court in Rocchelli’s native town of Pavia has found guilty and convicted to 24 years for complicity in murder a Ukrainian National guard soldier Vitaliy Markiv.
The jury has concluded that Markiv - the only of 100+ soldiers on the Karachun hill with an Italian citizenship - spotted and identified journalists, shot them with his Ak-74 from 1700m distance, and passed their coordinates to the Ukrainian army, which shelled them with mortars
No investigation on the scene in Ukraine was done. The case was based on circumstantial evidence with no direct proof of his involvement. The jury concluded that Markiv was a ‘spotter’ based on photos and videos in which he wore radios.
It was never proved that he was on a position that day, or that he actually was able to recognize journalists and reach them with Ak-74. Nor his criminal intent was proven, considering that he was a source of information for many Italian journalists.
The only thing that links Markiv to the murder of journalists is an article published online by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera the next day after journalists’ death. In it, freelance journalist Ilaria Morani quotes an unnamed ‘captain of the Ukrainian army’
He allegedly told her: “Usually we do not shoot in the direction of civilians, but when we see movement, we load heavy artillery. This is what happened to the two journalists and their interpreter’. Court believes this to be Markiv’s extrajudicial confession.
However, it turned out that Morani never talked to Markiv, and reportedly heard his conversation with another Italian journalist, Fauci, on a loudspeaker. There is no recording of that call.
Fauci in court didn’t recall that Markiv told him anything about his - or the Ukrainian military - role in the death of journalists. He testified that Markiv only told him not to approach the area because it was dangerous.
The jury concluded that Ukrainian side & Markiv deliberately wanted to kill ‘uncomfortable’ journalists, that it was a unilateral attack, a crime against freedom of speech. This is based on the account of French photographer William Roguelon, a key witness who survived the attack
In court, Roguelon said he didn’t see who was shooting, but he had ‘an intimate belief’ it wasn’t the pro-Russian side because they treated journalists well. He has never seen Markiv or other Ukrainian soldiers in the area.
The jury has ignored a crucial piece of evidence: a video, recorded by Roguelon, in which Andrei Mironov is heard talking to a taxi driver during the shelling. In it, Mironov clearly says they ‘are caught in a crossfire’
Mironov also says there is someone nearby ‘who is shooting from everything he has’ and that from Karachun Ukrainians are responding with mortars. In the video, AK shots from short distance (ie, from separatist positions) are also heard.
In court, many propaganda clichés about the war in Ukraine were quoted, such as that civilians in Sloviansk suffered only from the actions of the Ukrainian military, while it is well-documented that separatists tortured, killed civilians and fired from residential areas
Sources such as Russian spring and RT were quoted by the prosecution as trustworthy. The New York Times published a brilliant article about that nytimes.com/2019/12/17/wor…
Some factual mistakes that revealed ignorance of the situation in Ukraine were included in the sentence, such as ‘separatist movements in Donbas were formed after the declaration of Ukraine’s independence in 2014’.
It was said that separatists in Sloviansk treated journalists well (ask @SimonOstrovsky about it!). The content of two official documents from OSCE and HRW was manipulated by the prosecution, with their findings quoted partially and in a distorted manner.
It was said that there was no war situation at the time of Rocchelli’s and Mironov's death, while the Mironov video points to the opposite.
Similar messages, completely distorting the real situation in Sloviansk in 2014, are being repeated by the prosecution and civil plaintiffs in the appeals court in Milan. The appeal hearings started in late September and the verdict is due in early November.
For more than a year, our team - me and Italian journalists @daniloeliatweet @tincazzi @RubenLagattolla have been working on an investigation of what happened to our colleagues on that tragic day. We were surprised there was no investigation on the scene and decided to do our own
We went to the scene on Sloviansk three times, created a digital map of the terrain with a drone, made visibility and arms range tests. We found two other survivors of that attack, never heard by the court. We spoke to several international journalists who were then in Sloviansk
In the course of our investigation we have found plenty of evidence that puts into doubt the reconstruction of events by the Italian first grade court. Based on a 3D map of the terrain, independent Italian experts have concluded that there was no visibility from Markiv’s position
They also said the shots heard in Roguelon video come from close by, i.e. there was indeed a crossfire. Also, Markiv was physically unable to target and hit journalists or their car with Ak-74 from 1700m distance.
The only thing we were unable to do was to interview the other side: prosecutors, Rocchelli family, their lawyer, key witnesses Roguelon, Morani and Fauci, representatives of two Italian press organizations who joined the case as civil plaintiffs against the state of Ukraine.
All of them ignored our interview requests or refused to be interviewed, sometimes explicitly saying that they don’t like our investigation. Now, they accuse us of being one-sided.
The coverage of the first grade trial in the Italian media was extremely one-sided, with Markiv called ‘a killer’ since the day of his arrest in 2017 and the position of his defence never quoted. Recently, that has been changing, in part due to our investigation.
We presented a short version of our documentary in September in Italy and Ukraine, and are currently finishing the full version. We are all experienced journalists who value our reputation and financed the documentary via three crowdfunding campaigns and a grant from @JFJfund
Markiv’s defendants have asked the court to consider the short version of our documentary as new evidence. No decision has been made yet. The prosecution unfoundedly accused us of not being independent. Rocchelli’s family lawyer said our investigation is an offence to his memory.
We are also attacked by the media. Russian propaganda TV Russia1 made a defaming story about our documentary. Recently, an ex Italian mercenary in Donbas who fought on the separatist side published an article against us on the pro-Assad and pro-Lukashenko website Contropiano
Strikingly, this article was later shared by Articolo 21, a website affiliated with the Italian press federation, a civil plaintiff in Markiv’s case.
Our work is unprecedented: neither investigators nor other journalists have done such a complex research. The attempts to discredit and censor our work are unacceptable. Especially if they come from the same people who in court pledge to defend the freedom of speech. END
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