For the trial for the Piazza della Loggia massacrethe Court of Appeal of Brescia today made the request to have access to four new magistratesthrough the specific activation of the notice to the CSM for extra-district application: it would thus allow the two judging panels (ordinary and juvenile court) to devote themselves exclusively to massacre proceedings and not to ordinary onesin order to guarantee a rapid decision, within one year.
«In consideration of the celebration begun in recent days at the Court of Assizes of the Court of Brescia and at the Juvenile Court of Brescia of the trials against, respectively, Zorzi Roberto and Toffaloni Marco (a minor at the time of the events) , concerning the Piazza della Loggia massacre, the Deputy President of the Court of Appeal, Dr. Antonio Matano, and the Attorney General, Dr. Guido Rispoli – we read in the text – they express grave concern about the insufficiency of the necessary judicial staff to adequately deal with these additional looming issues that are both delicate and very important.”
«It is, in fact, about two very complex processes resulting from a new complex line of investigations which, given the enormous amount of evidentiary material, require an exceptional effort and which will probably engage the respective judging panels exclusively for at least a year – he continues – In order to guarantee the rapid and regular carrying out of the two trials, the magistrates responsible for their celebration they will necessarily have to be replaced by other colleagues with regards to carrying out normal jurisdictional activities. The district of Brescia is not able to offer the necessary resources for this purpose. All the offices are burdened by significant staff shortages and it is not possible to withdraw magistrates from any office for such a long period. The flexible staffing plans, which are the tool offered at central level to meet exceptional needs, are deserted, while the sub-district tables adopted at district level which provide for the possibility of drawing on judges from the various offices of the district are not suitable, being intended to respond to emergencies and short-term replacements. For these reasons, the Court of Appeal, collecting the requests formulated by the Deputy President of the Court and by the President of the Juvenile Court, requested, on 2 and 13 May respectively, the Superior Council of the Judiciary to wish to proceed with some extra-district applications, drawing from offices across the entire national territory. To date the CSM has not yet responded.”
Then the final thrust, with reference to the fresh declarations expressed last Tuesday in Brescia by Sergio Mattarella: «The words of the President of the Republic on the occasion of the visit to Brescia for the ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the massacre renew and increase the concern of not being able to guarantee the rapid carrying out of the proceedings that Brescia and all of Italy expects: as stated by the Head of State in his speech, «today the Italian Republic is Brescia, it is Piazza della Loggia». And, referring to the new trials that have just begun, the President stated: “We wait with patient trust because the truth is a pillar of democracy.” The Brescia judiciary which, even by overcoming unacceptable misdirections, has already been able to ascertain the definitive responsibility of some culprits will certainly be able to ascertain the truth also with reference to these two new trials, but to this end, given the situation of serious staff shortage, it is essential that the support requested from the Superior Council of the Judiciary is promptly provided».
