For some time now, the prosecutor’s office in Milan, as the President of the Court of Appeal Giuseppe Ondei recalled at the last inauguration of the judicial year, has been faced with serious “staffing shortages” which risk swamping the work of justice. And for this reason it is not uncommon to hear more than one complaint, in a tone that is at times modest, at times incendiary, almost always annoyed, in the corridors of the fourth floor and beyond.
To the already well-known discontent, in recent weeks, yet another tile has been added that the prosecutor Marcello Viola (in the circle) will have to deal with, having been head of the Milan office for less than two years and already dealing with a necessary reorganization work to keep up with the times, including the challenges of common crime. The chief prosecutor himself had reported in the press the serious gaps in staff: according to his calculations, 23 percent of magistrates are missing, to which is added the “drama” of the lack of administrative staff, necessary for the correct functioning of the machine judicial.
The latest hot legacy concerns the reassignment of 2495 files of the public prosecutor Andrea Fraioli, in force until 31 January this year, to the seventh department of the prosecutor’s office specializing in common organized crime.
The CSM recently arranged for him to be transferred from Via Freguglia to the Court of Appeal of Trento, where he took up the role of Deputy Attorney General. The residues of his never completed work will therefore have to be distributed among his colleagues in the Milan office: 1515 files on so-called “ordinary” matters, of which 821 relating to known subjects. Of these, 116 are proceedings for which a notice of conclusion of preliminary investigations has been issued. We remind you here that this is a document that is notified to the suspect at the conclusion of the investigation carried out on his behalf, so that he can defend himself with briefs, documents or ask to be heard. And it is also an act that, generally, is preparatory to the request for committal to trial. Only 28 of these thousand and a half cases are model 45, i.e. without any hypothesis of crime or suspects.
There is more. In addition to these 1515 files of ordinary matters, another 980 are pending in specialized matters, which will be distributed among the colleagues of the seventh department led by the deputy Laura Pedio and who will soon leave the position to move to the head of the Lodi prosecutor’s office . Of these, 554 are the responsibility of known persons and 425 are the responsibility of unknown persons. Going into the merits of the issue, we are also talking about a case dating back to 2014 against well-known people for exploitation of prostitution with violence and threats. A serious crime, punishable by up to six years in prison. And which risks being archived, given the obvious difficulties in tracing the authors after a decade. As well as carrying out investigations, with a view to a possible trial.
The large amount of files (the 554 belonging to known persons “as a matter of priority”) will therefore be catapulted, with great discontent, among the public prosecutors of the seventh, with the exception of prosecutors Leonardo Lesti and Francesca Crupi, who instead distinguished themselves, and we remember him for the record, for his industriousness: both of them already have to manage a “surplus” of 100 files compared to the others, and are excluded from the reassignment of Fraioli’s old investigations.
The magistrates will have to evaluate the individual case and decide how to continue the work left half-finished, so to speak, by their colleague.
