Criminalised for Protecting, Silenced for Denouncing: The Right to Truth
On 21st March, Libera and thousands of people across the world read aloud the names of innocent victims of mafias, corruption, and organised crime. Behind each name lies not only grief, but a deeper story: the attempt to criminalise or silence those who dared to defend life, denounce abuses, or resist exploitation.
Somalia: Journalism as a Death Sentence
In Mogadishu, telling the truth became a death sentence.
On 20 March 1994, journalist Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran Hrovatin were murdered after investigating arms trafficking and the dumping of toxic waste. Just one year later, on 9 February 1995, journalist Marcello Palmisano was also killed while reporting from Somalia.
Their murders revealed the high price of searching for truth in a world where information threatens powerful interests. Decades later, silence and cover-ups still surround their cases, making the demand for justice all the more urgent.
Africa’s Activists: Targeted for Justice
- In Kenya, human rights lawyer Willie Kimani was abducted and murdered in 2016 alongside his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri. His killers were not criminals in hiding, but police officers, proof of how institutions can turn violent against those who expose their abuses.
- In Congo, Luc Nkulula, a leader of the citizens’ movement Lucha, mobilised thousands of young people for democracy and justice. In 2018, he died in a suspicious house fire in Goma. Many believe his activism had become too dangerous for those in power.
These stories embody a recurring truth: those who stand up for dignity and rights are often treated as criminals.
Italy’s Fields: Migrants Exploited, Migrants Killed
In 2018, two van crashes in Foggia and Ascoli Satriano claimed the lives of over a dozen braccianti returning from the fields after endless shifts. Most were migrants from Africa, recruited through the caporalato system—a modern form of slavery controlled by organised crime.
Among the victims were Joseph Awuku, Amadou Balde, Bafode Camara, Aladjie and Alagie Ceesay, Alasanna Darboe, and Ali Dembele. Their only “crime” was to work for survival in Europe’s agricultural heartlands.
Their deaths, like that of Soumaila Sacko, the Malian trade unionist killed in Calabria the same year while defending the rights of fellow workers, remind us that exploitation kills just as surely as bullets.
A Shared Thread: Silencing Those Who Resist
From Somalia’s reporters to Congo’s activists, from Kenyan lawyers to African farmworkers in Italy, the thread is the same: those who defend life, rights, and truth are treated as threats. They are criminalized, silenced, or eliminated.
On 21st March 2025, when names are read aloud in Trapani and across Italy, these voices will join the global chorus of memory.
Because memory is not only about the past, it is the starting point for action.
Because the right to truth is universal and non-negotiable.
Names to remember
- Ilaria Alpi – journalist, Somalia, 1994
- Miran Hrovatin – cameraman, Somalia, 1994
- Marcello Palmisano – journalist, Somalia, 1995
- Willie Kimani, Josephat Mwenda, Joseph Muiruri – Kenya, 2016
- Luc Nkulula – activist, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2
- Soumaila Sacko – trade unionist, Italy, 2018
- Joseph Awuku, Amadou Balde, Bafode Camara, Aladjie Ceesay, Alagie Ceesay, Alasanna Darboe, and Ali Dembele – migrant farmworkers, Foggia/Ascoli Satriano, 2018
