Italian landowner arrested after Indian worker killed in case that shocked country

The case of a farm worker who died of a hemorrhage in Italy has sparked outrage across the country.

President Sergio Mattarella himself has spoken out on the case, citing what he called the “cruel” exploitation of workers and the “inhumane” conditions in which seasonal farm workers often work in Italy.

Italian police arrested a farm owner on Tuesday on suspicion of manslaughter after one of his workers, an undocumented worker from India, bled to death when his arm was severed by farm equipment.

The landowner abandoned the bleeding worker and did not call an ambulance, prosecutors said.

Satnam Singh’s death has shocked Italians and sparked protests by unions and farm workers demanding better working conditions. They have called for an end to the exploitative “caporalato” system, which uses underpaid immigrant labor to work in Italy’s agricultural industry.

Carabinieri police in Latina, a largely agricultural province south of Rome, arrested farm owner Antonello Lovato after prosecutors upgraded the crime from suspected involuntary manslaughter to homicide with “malicious intent after the fact,” according to a statement from Latina prosecutors.

Investigators did so after determining that Singh died from “excessive blood loss.” The medical examiner’s report concluded that he “most likely” would have survived if he had received prompt medical attention, prosecutors said in a statement.

But an ambulance was apparently not called immediately after Singh’s arm was torn off when it became stuck in a nylon packaging machine.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera cited the arrest warrant signed by Judge Giuseppe Molfese as saying that Lovato was driving the tractor that pulled the nylon packaging machine and then abandoned a bleeding Singh outside his house.

Italian media cited witnesses as saying that Lovato had refused pleas from Singh’s wife, who also worked on the farm, to call an ambulance, saying he was already dead.

Public television RAI interviewed a neighbor who eventually called an ambulance. Singh was taken to Rome’s San Camillo hospital where he was pronounced dead 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 this time, it must therefore be considered that the decision to omit the necessary care constituted an acceptance of the risk of the fatal event and constituted the cause which directly led to death,” the statement said.

There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from the law firms Stefano Perotti and Valerio Righi, identified by RAI as Lovato’s lawyers.

According to Renzo Lovato, the singer’s father, RAI, Singh was advised not to get too close to the equipment. He added that Singh had taken this warning “too lightly” and that his attitude “would cost everyone dearly”.