The charge was dismissed defamation towards the general Roberto Vannacci by the national volleyball player Paola Egonu. This was decided by the judge for preliminary investigations of the court of Lucca. The champion’s complaint against the soldier, newly elected to the European Parliament with the League, came due to some words contained in the general’s first book, “The world upside down”: “Even if Paola Egonu has Italian citizenship, it is evident that his somatic features do not represent Italianness…”.
Egonu had reported Vannacci in Bergamo, then the case was passed under territorial jurisdiction to Lucca, the territory in which Vannacci resides. The prosecutor had asked for the case to be dismissed, but the volleyball player had opposed it. An attempt at mediation between the parties also failed. Last May the general had also written a letter to Egonu, in which he had tried to give an “authentic” interpretation of the words and expressions I used towards him”.
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In any case, the soldier explained that he had never had any doubts about the volleyball player’s Italian citizenship and that he was “personally and continually proud that she represents our tricolour, with her sporting excellence. But this cannot visually conceal her origins as a which I am convinced, you yourself are proud of.” In the dismissal order, the judge defined “the phrase used (by Vannucci) as inappropriate and improper”, but at the same time, as we read later in the document, “there does not appear to be an exceeding of the limit of continence that can be said to be indicative, on the part of the suspect, of the willingness to offend the reputation of the offended person free of charge”. Egonu’s lawyer, Simone Facchinetti, spoke of an accusation “unexpectedly dismissed, we will evaluate other actions. Unacceptable decision.”
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