Marco Valero Verni, the uncle of Pamela Mastropietro, an Italian girl murdered by a Nigeran migrant last year, has threatened to release photos of her dismembered body if the new government loosens up restrictions on immigration.

Mastropietro was killed by Innocent Oseghale, a Nigerian immigrant and drug dealer, in January 2018. Her body was found chopped to pieces on the side of the road, a story that shocked the Italian public.

It was later revealed by a cell mate of Oseghale’s that he had begun to cut her to bits while she was still alive.

The coalition government between the populist 5 Star movement, and the League, led by the right-wing firebrand Matteo Salvini, fell apart last week. According to reports, the 5 Star movement is in talks with the centre-left party Partito Democratico.

These talks are what have prompted Mastopietro’s uncle to act, worried that the new government would roll back restrictions on immigration put in place by the previous coalition.

Verni said that he was willing to bring photographs of Mastropietro’s body to show to Parliament, in order to “remind those in power of the catastrophic effects of illegal immigration”.

The original hearing into her murder was held in private, as the authorities believed the photos would be too shocking to publicly reveal, but Verni argues that this shock is necessary to get people to stop other horrific crimes from happening:

Every day we are bombarded with tear-jerking images of boats laden with migrants that the left would like to welcome without worrying about the consequences. The same left that remained silent when Pamela was raped and killed with unprecedented ferocity… Unfortunately the issue has become politicized right from the start… No support has come from the institutional left… The problem, however, should be recognised by all sides, because this is not a battle against someone but for the good of all.

Oseghale is currently serving a life sentence for the murder.

UPDATE:

The 5 Star Movement and the PD have agreed to a new coalition this evening. Giuseppe Conte will stay on as Prime Minister, and the government will nominally stay in power until the 2023 election. Sources say that opening the ports to migrants was a key demand of the PD. However, this will be the 68th government in 74 years for the country, and this new coalition is not guaranteed to last that long.