Reasons for the acquittal of Gianluca Callipo in “Scott Rebirth”
“The evidence, at the end of the preliminary investigation, appears insufficient, not having allowed us to identify the specific and conscious causal contribution that Callipo would have provided to the gang and consequently leaving the doubt that the accused’s conduct actually exceeded the threshold of mere compliant contiguity to materialize in complicity in the criminally relevant crime”.
This is how the Court of Vibo Valentia justified the acquittal of the former mayor of Pizzo, Gianluca Callipo, in the “Scott Rebirth” trial, in which he was accused of external complicity in a mafia association and aggravated abuse of office.
The public prosecution had requested an 18-year prison sentence for Callipo.
In the reasons for the sentence, issued on 20 November, the judges state that “from the evidentiary material emerges, without a doubt, a conduct that is anything but transparent on the part of the accused, who has shown that he consents to contacts and relationships with members of the clan criminal (primarily with Salvatore Francesco Mazzotta), probably also with the intention of obtaining his consent in view of the electoral consultations”.
Probative elements, however, considered not sufficient to justify the conviction of the former mayor of Pizzo.
