PESCARA. «The identification (which became necessary after the communication of the historical avalanche map to the Municipality of Farindola) of the area where the hotel stood as an “area considered at risk” would have determined, as an automatic consequence, according to the provisions of the guidelines, in case of issuing a meteorological bulletin with forecast of marked, strong, very strong danger, the alarm phase is triggered, which provides that the mayor orders with his own ordinance any limitations in the public circulation areas, on the facilities and on the skiable slopes, having consulted the municipal commission for avalanche risk…, the hotel necessarily becoming, in the presence of a bulletin with forecasts of at least marked danger, a building exposed to the imminent danger of an avalanche”. It is one of the important passages of the reasons for the second degree sentence (over 500 pages) filed by the judges of the Court of Appeal of L’Aquila on the Rigopiano avalanche of 18 January 2017, when 29 people lost their lives. It’s the part that concerns the isolation of the hotel, which has become a death trap.
THE MUNICIPALITY OF FARINDOLA A passage with which the judges also condemn the municipal technician Enrico Colangeli to the same sentence (2 years and 8 months) inflicted by the preliminary hearing judge of Pescara on the mayor of Farindola, Ilario Lacchetta: «The same can be said also for Colangeli, having been», writes the Court, «editor of the original version of the municipal emergency plan, member of the Municipality’s avalanche commission, but above all designated ab origine and still charged by Mayor Lacchetta with providing to updates to the emergency plan with reference to avalanche risk prediction”.
After closing the schools, mayor Lacchetta should have also closed the hotel and “provided for the removal of the people present in it and their placement in safe areas”. While the attitude of the defendants according to the Court was “completely inert, continuing to fail to even order the convocation of the avalanche commission (inactive since 2005, despite the opening of the hotel also in the winter season in 2007)”.
THE NEW CONVICTIONS And in also affirming the guilt of Colangeli (together with the mayor), the judges underline that the accused «did nothing, thus negligently cooperating with Lacchetta, even in the days of the emergency, continuing his negligently inert conduct and thus failing to put solicitations are underway towards the mayor, so that he would issue the ordinance with reference to the hotel, thus contributing to determining for Lacchetta a further culpable reassurance regarding the continuation of his inert attitude”. In addition to Colangeli, two other convictions were received on appeal (compared to those already decided in first instance and confirmed in L’Aquila, namely the manager Paolo D’Incecco and its official Mauro Di Blasio to 3 years and 4 months each): that of the former prefect of Pescara Francesco Provolo (one year and 8 months) and his chief of staff, Leonardo Bianco (one year and 4 months). The first instance trial ended with 5 convictions (three relating to the disaster and two for urban planning violations of the structure) and 25 acquittals: convictions which rose to 8 on appeal.
THE FORMER PREFECT The conviction concerns the crime of forgery which has nothing to do, as the Court highlighted, with the other charges of complicity in the deaths and injuries for which the two were acquitted. The forgery relates to the communication to the Ministry regarding the opening of the operations room since 16 January 2017, while the rescue center was only opened on the morning of 18 January, the day of the tragedy. «Provolo», the judges wrote in the sentence, «did not establish the bodies strictly foreseen and regulated to deal with emergencies and, nevertheless, communicated, in full awareness of his omission, a different representation of reality, doing so in order to appear to the authorities receiving his note to have carried out activities which he had not carried out, with the evident aim of concealing the inadequacy of the office directed by him”. The Court, dissenting from the decision of the Pescara judge who acquitted him, underlines his responsibility for the omission of official documents and forgery. The Cov meeting of January 16 for the judges had nothing to do with the rescue coordination center which has a permanent character until the emergency ends. The traffic committee concerned only the traffic function, while the Ccs is made up of 14 functions.
The first instance trial ended with 5 convictions (three relating to the disaster and two for urban planning violations of the structure) and 25 acquittals: convictions which rose to 8 on appeal.
UNPREDICTABLE AVALANCHE The issue of the unpredictability of the avalanche event and the failure to create the avalanche danger map is extensively covered. «It is not possible to identify», write the judges, «the subjects to whom the crimes referred to in counts 1 and 2 (disaster and deaths and personal injuries) have been ascribed ed), negligent behavior also from the point of view of diligence, and this because, taking into account their functions and skills, the conditions for inferring an objective dangerousness of the area were not present, enough to require the activation of solicitation powers”. And here the Court points the finger at Coreneva: «Indeed, it must be remembered that Coreneva was a highly specialized technical-scientific support body assigned by the relevant law, not surprisingly composed of experts in the sector, who could well have assessed the need to vary the location parameters of the areas to be submitted to the avalanche map upon approval of the historical map. Well, the inferred awareness of the undoubted greater anthropization of the area following the release of the authorization provisions relating to the hotel activity appears to be anything but demonstrated on the part of the defendants”.
the AND MISLAYING On the red herring, in relation to the “hidden” call for help from the hotel waiter Gabriele D’Angelo (among the 29 victims), the Court is clear: «No element leads us to deduce that the significant data of D’Angelo’s call had been placed on the sheet where the tear appears to be present»; and then «the hypothesized, preordained will of the accused on the part of the prosecution aimed at concealing D’Angelo’s call from the investigators, does not go well with what was implemented by Pontrandolfo and Verzella, or with their having turned to the carabinieri , informing them of the fact that, on the morning of January 18th, there had been a call from a guest at the Rigopiano hotel”.
THE APPEAL There are other aspects in the sentence that will be examined by the general prosecutor’s office which will have to evaluate (probably with the help of the Pescara magistrates who handled the investigation, such as the prosecutor Giuseppe Bellellithe substitutes Anna Benigni And Andrea Papalia) the most suitable elements for an obvious appeal to the Court of Cassation, as the other parties will certainly do, first of all the defenses of the convicted defendants.
