ROME — Italian police on Tuesday arrested a farm owner on suspicion of murder after one of his workers, an undocumented worker from India, bled to death when a piece of farm equipment severed his arm. The landowner abandoned the bleeding worker and did not call an ambulance, prosecutors said.
Satnam Singh’s death shocked Italians and sparked protests by unions and farm workers demanding better working conditions. They have called for an end to exploitation “caporalate” system of using low-paid migrant labor to work in Italy’s agricultural industry.
Even the president Sergio Mattarella has intervened in the case, referring to what he said was the “cruel” exploitation of workers like Singh and the “inhumane” conditions under which seasonal farm laborers often work in Italy.
Carabinieri police in Latina, a largely agricultural province south of Rome, arrested farm owner Antonello Lovato after prosecutors upgraded the alleged original crime of involuntary manslaughter to manslaughter with “delayed malice,” a statement said. of Latina prosecutors.
They did so after coroners determined that Singh died from “extensive blood loss.” The forensic report found that “most likely” he would have survived if he had received immediate medical attention, according to prosecutors’ statement.
But an ambulance was apparently not called immediately after Singh’s arm was torn off when he became trapped in a nylon wrapping machine.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera cited the arrest warrant signed by Judge Giuseppe Molfese as saying Lovato drove the tractor pulling the nylon wrapping machine and then abandoned a bloodied Singh, leaving him outside his home.
Italian news reports have quoted witnesses as saying that Lovato rejected pleas from Singh’s wife, who also worked on the farm, to call an ambulance, claiming he was already dead.
RAI state television interviewed a neighbor who eventually called an ambulance. Singh was taken to Rome’s San Camillo hospital, where he was pronounced dead about two days later.
In the statement, Latino prosecutors said Singh’s condition after the injury was so serious that it was obvious he needed immediate medical attention.
“At the current time, therefore, it must be considered that the decision to omit necessary care constituted acceptance of the risk of the lethal event and linked the cause that directly resulted in death,” the statement said.
There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from the law offices of Stefano Perotti and Valerio Righi, identified by RAI as Lovato’s lawyers.
RAI quoted Lovato’s father, Renzo, as saying that Singh had been warned not to get too close to the team. He said Singh took the warning “too lightly” and that his attitude “will cost everyone dearly.”
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