An Italian court has sentenced a bus driver to 24 years in prison for hijacking of a school bus. The judges considered this an act of terrorism. The man was reportedly motivated by "political reasons" and his opposition to the hardline anti-migration policies of the then interior minister.
The hijacking of a bus carrying 50 children on a school trip with two teachers and a janitor from Crema, northern Italy, in March 2019 was an act of terrorism, the Milan Court of Appeals ruled on
Wednesday, July 15. The perpetrator, Ousseynou Sy,
was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
The passengers had been rescued by carabinieri, who stopped the bus after it raced through the streets in San Donato Milanese. Children aboard the bus had managed to hide their phones from Sy and secretly alerted parents, who in turn alerted the police. Among them were boys from migrant families.
The hijacking was reportedly motivated by "political reasons" linked to migrant deaths in the Mediterranean and the hardline anti-migration policies of the interior minister at that time, Matteo Salvini.
The court ruled the bus driver had sought to "intimidate the population" as
well as "public opinion" and the government through his actions, which
"caused harm to public safety."
Sy, alongside
the company he worked for, Autoguidovie, and the education ministry have been sentenced to pay damages to the middle-school pupils aboard the bus he hijacked and their
families. A provisional sum of almost 2 million euros has been
established.
Hostage-taking to commit terrorism
Prosecutors Luca Poniz and Alberto Nobili, head of the Milan counterterrorism unit, had initially only charged Sy with
hostage-taking, but changed the charges in the final hearings to hostage-taking to commit terrorism.
"In our view, there was neither a massacre nor terrorism," Sy's lawyer
Giovanni Garbagnati said, announcing that an appeal would be made
against the sentence.
The 47-year-old man has been an Italian citizen for 15 years and is originally from Senegal. He has been permanently banned from driving buses.
'Psychological damage remains'
The parents of the pupils and their lawyers said that they were pleased with the court's decision. "We put ourselves in the hands of the court," one mother said. She said that the sentence was "balanced," given the seriousness of the crime.
"This also serves as a lesson for our children and it will make them feel close to the institutions," another parent said.
"The psychological damage done to the children remains," one father said, arguing that "the defendant does not realize how serious the act he committed was. He was only thinking about the victims who died in the Mediterranean, but he risked committing a massacre of children."
The students taken hostage are trying to "forget this terrible incident" through psychological help, one parent said.
Reaction from Salvini, local politicians
"I hope he never gets out of prison," far-right League party leader Matteo Salvini said in reaction to the court ruling.
The governor of Italy's northern region Lombardy, where the crime was committed, Attilio Fontana, called it an "exemplary sentence for the guilty party of an incident that shook Lombardy and the entire country." Fontana is also a member of the League party.
Crema mayor Stefania Bonaldi called the court's decision a "victory of rule of law."