By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell expressed frustration with the Italian government yesterday for its continued delay to hand over the files on the investigation of the two Bahamian men who died mysteriously in 2019.

Mr Mitchell told reporters in April that the government had requested the reports from the Italian officials.

However, to date, Bahamian officials have yet to receive them.

“Last year, I was in Italy for a conference when Italy was chair of the G20, I believe it was, (and) we met with the deputy foreign minister. The previous government had hired a private lawyer to work on our behalf. The private lawyer said that he had spoken to the traditional authorities in Italy,” Mr Mitchell told reporters.

“They had promised that within weeks of our departure that the entire file, their investigation would be turned over to us so that we could have our own police officers and forensic people look at the file to see if there was anything they had missed or had been re-examined.

“We have been seeking to follow that up and it has simply not happened.”

Mr Mitchell said it’s especially annoying because it is the same countries that constantly berate us and “beat” us with a stick.

He was likely referring to the European Union (EU) blacklisting and also suggested that the country may have to resort to “name and shame” tactics so their requests can be fulfilled.

“The reason why I’m particularly annoyed is because these countries in the EU are constantly barraging and trying to beat The Bahamas with a stick over one thing or the other that they have not produced,” he said.

“And on this very simple thing that we’re asking them, they can’t seem to get it done so we’re continuing to beat the bushes on that and so my own view is if name and shame is the game then perhaps that’s the direction we have to go in, but we want our authorities and the families here to have a look at what the file says so that they can satisfy themselves that the investigation was in fact exhaustive and we know what happened.”

Asked if he felt that officials are not moving quickly enough because The Bahamas is a small island nation, he replied: “Well, let’s put it this way: You may remember that there was a case of a young woman, an American citizen who was charged with murder and who was convicted and sentenced and the US government pushed and pushed and pushed and along with private lawyers, they were able to get a complete retrial, the thing reversed and the persons set free.

“The Bahamas, do we have the resources to do that? Don’t know but we have a voice, and my view is that the families are dissatisfied with the result. We are dissatisfied with the result. Our colleague is dead. It doesn’t make sense to us so we think we may need the opportunity to look at the file, view it in its entirety and come to our own decision as to whether the facts are as they present them.”

Bahamians Alrae Ramsey and Blair John were found dead in Italy on June 4 and June 5, 2019, respectively.

Ramsey, a 29-year-old foreign service officer on study leave in Vienna, was reportedly in Turin on a break.

He and his friend, John, a 28-year-old Saint Mary’s University graduate student, were staying at a bed and breakfast establishment at Via la Loggia 2 in Turin.

Their bodies were discovered lifeless in the Po river in Turin.

While the autopsy reported that their deaths were likely accidental as a result of drowning, their families have rejected that explanation and are still seeking answers.