PORDENONE – A stunt or a political gesture? Whatever it was, the theft of the peace and European Union flags, stolen on the night of 16 April last year from the courtyard of the Ipsia Zanussi in Pordenone, was sentenced to 6 months in prison and a 300 euro fine. The single judge Francesca Vortali (vpo Beatrice Toffolon) granted the conditional suspension of the sentence to Gabriele Maria Manfrè, 27 years old, resident in Pordenone. The boy who helped him remove the banners from the flagpole that night, however, was granted judicial pardon by the Juvenile Court of Trieste. It is a sentence that the lawyer Nicola Trisciuoglio – who followed the trial process at a distance – does not accept. «They are kids without ideological culture – he states – it was just a stunt that lasted 12 hours, that’s how long it took for the mother to return the two flags. I will appeal, indeed, I do not rule out going directly to the Court of Cassation, because the Cartabia reform has not been applied where it provides for the dismissal of such minor facts”.
THE STORY
The two boys went into action just before 2.30 am. It was a Sunday. Having entered the courtyard of the school, they had taken possession of a two-step metal ladder, property of the school. The two flags were displayed outside and it wasn’t that difficult to remove them from the poles. The video surveillance system had filmed the scene and they were then identified. Digos had also investigated the case, because it was believed that the theft had a political connotation, as later confirmed by the investigator heard in the courtroom, as Mafrè had been indicated as the representative of a student association close to the right. However, the lawyer Trisciuoglio downplayed this aspect: «The boy is free from ideological positions. The consequences of this gesture are ridiculous.”
THE INVESTIGATIONS
The Flying Squad was also initially interested in the disappearance of the flags. Subsequently, the investigations were entrusted to Digos, which also interviewed the boys. Mafrè was also interrogated in the following days. The Prosecutor’s Office had contested the conspiracy to commit aggravated theft by the fact that it had been committed in a public building, at night, thus preventing public and private defence, and with the participation of a minor. The public prosecutor Andrea Del Missier, who had obtained the decree of immediate judgment from the investigating judge, had hypothesized that the profit from the theft could be “merely moral”.
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