“And That’s Where Things Ran Into a Wall”
Notes from the field
My room in the Regina Margherita hotel is unkempt. My laptop is perched on a simple wooden desk crowded with notebooks and papers, the garbage can is full of empty takeout containers and orange peels, and the handful of clothes I brought with me when I left my apartment in Tunis almost two months ago is strewn over the extra bed.
For almost a week this has been my home.
I came to Catania with one purpose: to interview Measho Tesfamariam, the smuggler who was with the 243 Ghost Boat passengers at a farm outside of Tripoli before they departed for the coast — and disappeared without a trace.
Measho is in prison here awaiting sentencing for his involvement in the smuggling ring that moved thousands of refugees across the Mediterranean — an operation apparently run by a man Jamal Al-Saudi. As outlined in the last episode of our investigation, I’ve been in Catania waiting for permission to interview him.
I can’t be sure that talking to Measho will give us new information. But I do know that he’s one of the only people who can provide detailed information about what happened to the Ghost Boat passengers in the hours before they disappeared. I also know he is willing to talk. However, we recently discovered that the judge in the case only authorized the interview to take place after Measho has been sentenced. His hearing was supposed to take place on December 1.
And that’s where things ran into a wall, at least temporarily.
Italian criminal lawyers declared a strike from November 30 to December 4, calling for reform to the criminal justice process in the country. The strike shut down legal proceedings across Italy for the entire week, including Measho’s. Now, the hearing is scheduled for the fifteenth, with a potential second hearing on December 22. This means it will be at least two weeks before we are able to speak with Measho, and possibly longer.
The delay is frustrating — for readers, for the families, for everybody involved in the investigation.
In part, though, it’s reality catching up with the scale and scope of what we’re trying to do. This investigation has been incredibly fast-paced for the past seven weeks. When we started publishing, and you started contributing, we were unsure of almost everything to do with the case; now we have narrowed our search down to a few very specific questions. This is the first genuine roadblock we have run into, and it is far from insurmountable. But it means we are going to have to be patient and flexible with our timing for the rest of the project — and that means no new episode this week. Instead, next week we’ll dig further into the mystery of the boat and its occupants.
As for me, I am saying goodbye to Catania and my room at the Regina Margherita. I’ll be back when I am able to speak to Measho, but, for now, it’s time for me to return to Tunis as we push the investigation forward on other fronts.
Onward.
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