Genoa. Word to the defense in the trial, which is nearing its conclusion, for the alleged extortion against Genoa. After yesterday the Prosecutor’s Office asked for 14 convictions, let’s talk today some of the defenders of the accused ‘minors’, i.e. those who are either not accused of being part of the alleged criminal association (but only of individual episodes of alleged threats or violence) or are accused of being part of very subordinate, even “unwitting” roles.
For the lawyer Angelo Paonewhich he defends Nicolò Garibotto, for which the Prosecutor’s Office asked for 2 years and one month “there is no criminal association because there is no organizational structure” but above all “I have never seen an associative crime where there is no sharing of purpose” he said in the chamber, also underlining that “we must keep distinguish expressions of dissent from the commission of crimes”. Paone then underlined by reading some interceptions how Garibotto (who was included in the alleged association only at a later time) “knew nothing of Genoa’s early withdrawal nor of the contacts made by Leopizzi in this sense” so much so that speaking with another accused he says that “I knew nothing about going to Pio The lawyer recalled that “Garibotto never knew either Preziosi or Zarbano” and then underlined how some of the disputed episodes are not actually criminally relevant behaviors such as the raid by a group of young ultras outside the San Giorgio restaurant to intimidate the player Izzo out: “The player himself came to say that he wasn’t happy but he wasn’t threatened. It was certainly rude behavior but in my opinion there was no crime”, or like the protest against the rossoblù bus after the defeat in Pescara, which occurred at Genoa airport: “Just because he went to the airport doesn’t mean he committed crimes. Hundreds of fans went there, maybe even some colleagues” she joked. But then – he added – is it criminally relevant conduct? Given that the bus was stopped by the digos, what did the police themselves say in this room? But instead of letting go, the prosecutor moved the charge where the crime would no longer be committed against the team but against the digos itself.”
For the lawyer Riccardo Passeggiwhich he defends Ivano Mucchi (yesterday the Prosecutor’s Office asked for 4 months for him for the airport episode alone, requesting acquittal from the crime of association) according to the Prosecutor’s thesis it would be “a criminal conspiracy with alternating current, which is only there when Genoa is doing badly and isn’t there when Genoa is doing well.” Passeggi recalled how “Digos was kept in the dark by the flying squad investigating a phenomenon she didn’t know about and this led her to take some memorable blunders in this process.” For Passeggi, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the aim of the association was to influence Genoa and, for Leopizzi and Marashi alone, to extort money, but in his opinion there is no association and in this case, as already said by his colleague, they should only be punished the “unlawful demonstrations” that transcend the right to protest.
The lawyer Davide Paltrinieri which he defends Piermarco Pellizzarialso accused of being part of the association (the prosecutor asked for 2 years and 4 months) and is accused for example of having imposed on the Ideale Ultras group, which was responsible for a violent attack with knives against a group of Sampdoria fans in 2012 of having imposed the will of the group and therefore of the alleged criminal association by forcing the ultras to Ideal Ultras to burn their banners in front of them and to disband the club. However, Paltrinieri recalled how after the death of Claudio Spagnolo the ultras from all over Italy had signed the pact “Enough infamous and enough blades”, essentially saying that knives had to stay out of any clashes between fans and the Ideale ultras group had violated it. For these the ‘old people’ had sanctioned them but “that episode it’s not proof that they wanted to have control of the steps because if that was the case they wouldn’t even have let them open it Ideal ultras”.
The lawyer Laura Tartariniwhich he defends Paolo Taccone (‘Il Bomba’) he pointed out how Taccone was included in the alleged association only in the last of the various reports made in three years by the flying squad, participation proven according to the accusation by only three episodes which occurred within three months, despite Taccone being a strange fan at the stadium and also to the police. “It is not proven in any way that Taccone not only knew about the association but that he participated in meetings and the public prosecutor himself says that he did not know the occult aims of the association which only a few knewas if it were a sort of ‘unaware participant‘” said Tartarini in the courtroom who then reconstructed the episodes complained of to Taccone. One of these was the wounding of a policeman in the clashes afterwards Genoa-Crotone. But the same policeman in the courtroom explained that “his hand had gotten stuck in a barrier after the police charge and when asked specifically whether the barrier where Taccone was standing had been moved to injure him he said no”.
The other disputed episode is always that of coach stopped at the airport: “In this case the specific conduct that Taccone would have taken is missing, given that it was Digos that stopped the bus to allow a brief protest to be made and then restarted it”
The third complaint is that he was part of the group of ultras who on the occasion of Genoa-Bologna on 26 February 2017 would have intimidated or threatened the rossoblu fans who wanted to enter the stadium but Leopizzi had asked to enter as a sign of protest after the match had started. Even in this case, he notes the lawyer: “I challenge anyone to say where Paolo Taccone was on that occasion and to say that he committed a specific crime. There is only the phone call from Leopizzi who tells him “We were good, but this does not mean that Taccone responded to Leopizzi’s directives also because on another occasion, when after a victory the fans had called the players under the North to applaud them Leopizzi, who had forbidden that gesture, called Taccone telling him ‘You are not an ultras”.
Even in the hearing of Tomorrow discussions will continue lawyers starting from the defenders of the main defendants Massimo Leopizzi, Artur Marashi and Fabrizio Fileni.
Tags: Alleged extortion Genoa defendants defenders contest crime association structure shared purpose
