Today's hearing in the trial underway in Cosenza, in the Court of Assizes, on the death of the footballer focused on the testimony of an expert cited by the defense Donato «Denis» Bergaminioriginally from Argenta (Ferrara) died at the age of 27 on 18 November 1989 in Roseto Capo Spulico, in the Cosentino area.
The death of Bergamini, whose body was found under a truck along the Ionian state road 106, was initially attributed to suicide and the related investigation started at the time by the Castrovillari Public Prosecutor's Office was closed. From subsequent investigations, however, it emerged that in reality Bergamini was already dead when his body was hit, because he was killed elsewhere, and that the suicide would have been staged. The only defendant in the trial, on charges of aggravated voluntary homicide in collaboration with unknown persons, is Isabella Internò, 55 years old, Bergamini's ex-girlfriend and who was present when the body of the Cosenza footballer was found.
The accused has always maintained that Bergamini committed suicide by being run over by the truck under which his body was found. The expert heard today by the Court of Assizes (president Paola Lucente) is Dr. Liliana Innamorato, present in 2017 on the occasion of the autopsy performed on Bergamini's body, which, despite the 28 years that have passed since his death, had remained intact. “According to my analysis – stated the witness during the deposition – Bergamini was alive at the moment of the impact with the truck. I believe that it is not likely that the victim had been drugged. Furthermore, no nails were found in the victim's nails. traces of other people's DNA”. The civil party, represented by the lawyer Fabio Anselmo, contesting the witness's statements, asked her for clarification regarding an expression of hers, “the body speaks”, contained in an interception Innamorato claimed, in this regard, that he was referring to “objective data emerging from the autopsy”. During the hearing the Court admitted a comparison, requested by the civil party, between the witness and the forensic doctors appointed by the prosecution, Roberto Testi and Margherita Neri, during which the three experts reiterated their positions. The lawyer Anselmo, speaking with the journalists, spoke of «a particularly significant hearing – added the civil defender – was unable to explain the scientific theories of death due to violent mechanical asphyxiation, which on the contrary were illustrated in an incontrovertible manner by the experts Testi and Neri”.