Ultras Juventus arrested after fan injured in pre-derby clashes

While Juventus fan Marco Basoccu remains in guarded condition, eight Bianconeri ultras have been arrested by the police for the disturbances that broke out before the Mole derby. They are considered responsible for resisting public officials, throwing dangerous materials, and possessing pyrotechnic devices during sporting events. Three arrests were made in flagrante delicto, and another five were made in deferred flagrante delicto, thanks to the analysis of images recorded by a drone. The police chief of Turin, Massimo Gambino, also issued eleven Daspo orders. Six officers were injured in the clashes.

The Turin prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to reconstruct what happened during the disturbances that led to the injury of Basoccu, a 36-year-old accountant residing in Milan, but raised in the Alessandrino area, belonging to the Bianconeri ultras group Viking, which is based in the Lombard capital. The case, entrusted to deputy prosecutor Paolo Scafi, currently hypothesizes the crime of serious injury. The investigations are entrusted to the Police, with the Digos and the Flying Squad proceeding. It is necessary to establish what struck Marco Basoccu on the head, causing him a severe cranial trauma. For this reason, some videos have been acquired. Among these footage, one in particular is being examined by investigators. The images are reportedly not clear due to the smoke from the tear gas used to prevent contact between the Bianconeri and Granata fan bases. In the video, Basoccu can be seen attempting to enter the stadium. Immediately after, just as he was hit, the man is seen collapsing to the ground and being helped by other fans inside the facility. For the Juventus ultras, there would be no doubt: their comrade was hit by a tear gas canister fired at chest height by law enforcement.

This is why they had asked on Sunday that the match not be played and had left their sector. This theory, that of the tear gas canister, is also supported by the accountant's father, who does not believe that a glass bottle injured his son, as was reported a few hours after the events. "A bottle makes a cut and they put in a few stitches, not something so devastating," says Pierluigi Basoccu. "I don't know where this version came from, which has deeply outraged me."

"My son was near another boy who heard the bang," the man recounts. "Marco fell face down, then got up, but immediately after collapsed again in a pool of blood. The doctors also told me that the impact was very strong and that there was great cranial suffering," continues Pierluigi, claiming to have "direct testimonies from boys who were there, next to him, who say that there was a tear gas rocket fired at chest height right towards that area."

With his wife Maria Teresa and Marco's sister, Beatrice, he lives in Casale Monferrato. After the operation, Marco is in pharmacological coma, intubated, and under observation in the intensive care unit of the Molinette hospital. His condition is guarded. The Viking 1986, among the most hardline groups of the Bianconeri curva and close to the far-right, wrote on social media: "Forza Marco! We are always with you." Acts of solidarity have come from ultras of other teams, and on social media, there is a particular call for "full and real light to be shed on the dynamics and responsibilities of what happened, at all levels, without convenient truths."

Message from Viking ultras for the injured fan in Turin

"Forza Marco! We are always with you. Viking 1986." This is the message that appeared on social media for Marco Leonardo Basoccu. Basoccu is part of the Viking, a historic Juventus ultras group based in Milan, the city where the 36-year-old lives, born in Turin and raised in Casale Monferrato, in the Alessandrino area.

The man works as an accountant and, as far as is known, was already known to the Turin Digos investigators for his belonging to the ultras group, although he has no prior reports or Daspo orders against him. The Viking group was founded in 1986 and is considered, in the ultra panorama, among the most hardline groups of organized Bianconeri support, close to the far-right.

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