Chico Forti is returning to Italy. This was announced by Giorgia Meloni after the meeting with Joe Biden at the White House. «I am happy to announce that after 24 years of detention in the United States, the authorization for the transfer of Chico Forti to Italy has been signed, a result of the diplomatic commitment of this government, the collaboration with the State of Florida, and with the government of the United States, whom I thank. It is a day of joy for Chico, for his family, for all of us. We had promised it and we have done it, and now we wait for him in Italy».
Who is Chico Forti
Enrico Forti, known as "Chico", 62 years old, was born in Trento on February 8, 1959. A former surfer and television producer, during his career he also participated in the 1985 World Cup of windsurfing, the first Italian to do so. After a car accident in 1987, he ended his sports career: Forti began to dedicate himself to the production of documentaries on extreme sports. He participated in a television program, Telemike, where in 1990 he won the cash prize. It was the push that led him to move to the United States.
The Murder
In 1998, he was accused of killing the Australian entrepreneur Dale Pike, whose body was found on a beach in Florida. Two years later, in 2000, he received a life sentence which he has served to this day at the Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, near Miami. Forti, throughout these years, has always claimed his innocence and said he was the victim of a judicial error. For this reason, he has been the protagonist of a legal, as well as diplomatic and political, battle to return to Italy, based on the European Convention on Human Rights in Strasbourg, asking to serve his sentence in his country.
The Investigations
Over the years, both journalistic and television investigations (such as Le Iene) have discussed his case. On December 23, 2020, the former Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio had announced his return to Italy - which then did not occur - to finish serving his life sentence. In October 2021, Jo Squillo, a television personality and friend of Forti, participating in the reality show “Big Brother VIP”, started a hunger strike to shed light on the matter. Upon learning of the appeal, Forti sent her a letter to thank her for the visibility, also sending a letter to the show's host, Alfonso Signorini.
The Uncle Active in the Legal Battle
The most active in seeking the truth in an attempt to prove Chico Forti's innocence has always been his uncle Gianni. The lawyer Joe Tacopina had described the case as «the biggest judicial error ever seen, there are no proofs, there is no motive».
Why He Would Have Been Framed
According to people close to Chico Forti, he would have been framed. The reason? Resentment for a documentary he himself shot, that in Miami worked as a television producer, about the case of Gianni Versace's killer. In the documentary, Chico Forti refuted the police reconstruction on the finding of Andrew Cunanan's body, the murderer of the Italian designer. Cunanan was found dead a few days later on a houseboat in the bay. According to what was broadcast in the documentary, it was suggested that Cunanan had been killed and anyway that he had not died where his body was found.
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