TRANI – Five convictions with sentences ranging from 8 months to just over 2 years in prison. There is no place to proceed for a sixth defendant, who has since died, and a shower of costs sentences in favor of the Municipality of Trani, established in the proceedings, to be quantified in civil proceedings. This is the picture that emerges from the sentence pronounced by the judge of the preliminary hearing of the Court of Trani, Marina Chiddo, at the end of the trial celebrated with an abbreviated procedure with reference to the illegal occupation of a council house in via NL, which occurred on 20 June 2018.
Maria Manzi, Emanuele Scandamarro, Tommaso and Michele Olivieri were declared guilty of continuous trespassing in competition and, having recognized the generic mitigating circumstances and applied the decreasing procedure for the abbreviated trial, they were all sentenced to eight months in prison in addition to the payment of court costs , with a suspended sentence. No suspension of sentence, however, for the fifth accused, Elisabetta Patruno, sentenced for the same charges, and others, to 2 years, 2 months and 20 days and a fine of 3,000 euros, in addition to payment of court costs,
Manzi, Scandamarro and the Olivieri will have to compensate the damages caused to the Municipality of Trani, which was a civil party, to be settled in a separate trial, as well as pay the costs of incorporation and defense incurred by the same civil party and by the private party present in the trial (one of the sons son of the person whose house the defendants stole), set at 900 euros. The reasons within 90 days.
According to the accusatory approach, in competition with each other, the defendants clandestinely entered the private property of the legitimate assignee, Felice Gusmai, 89 years old, taking advantage of the latter’s hospitalization and, against the tacit will of the offended party, with violence they damaged the lock and removed the part of the wall adjacent to it. Once they invaded the apartment, they occupied it and also profited from it, having saved the costs relating to the rent. The property is a social housing property owned by the regional agency for housing and living (Arca Puglia).
The legitimate assignee was hospitalized and it was easy to take possession from 20 June to 26 November 2018, the day of the forced eviction authorized by the judicial authority. At the time, around a hundred operators were needed, including law enforcement, firefighters, 118 and social services personnel. Judicial police notes, telephone interceptions, analysis of telephone records, summary information provided by the offended person and the other occupants of the houses in via NL, are the elements on which the accusation was based.
An illegal occupation among the most dramatic among those that have occurred in Trani in recent years. After the home invasion, Gusmai was discharged from hospital but his house was still occupied and the family had to pay their own taxes to transfer him to a facility in Margherita di Savoia. To complete the work, shortly thereafter, the formal cancellation of the assignment, which the public prosecution claimed occurred following threats suffered by Mr. Gusmai’s children: Felice gave up “his” apartment because it was occupied by others with strength and arrogance.
From then on Gusmai would never be the same person again. After the operation, Felice’s arm never regained full functionality and, along with the physical discomfort, psychological discomfort would take over. She passed away in the Margherita di Savoia facility on 28 March 2019 at the age of 90, in silent pain and far from the clamor of the news of those days.
