Catanzaro – The life sentence confirmed on appeal against Marco Gallo accused of being the perpetrator of the murder of the lawyer Francesco Pagliuso. The Court of Appeal (President Abigail Mellace and, alongside, Paola Ciriaco and the popular judges) in today’s hearing, in fact, confirmed the accusatory system of the Prosecutor’s Office – represented by the prosecutor Luigi Maffia -, already sanctioned in the first instance. The first degree sentence was therefore reformed with the recognition of the aggravating mafia charge (excluded in the first degree), confirming the maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The Court also condemns the accused to pay damages to the civil parties and orders 90 days for reasons. He therefore rejects the appeal of the defendant’s defense (lawyer Siclari).
During the trial, the story relating to the killing of the lawyer from Lamezia, which occurred on the night between 9 and 10 August 2016, was reviewed. Prosecutor Maffia, it is recalled, had asked Gallo, accused of having been “a killer of the ‘Ndrangheta and of having committed other murders”, the mafia aggravating circumstance was applied, excluded by the judges of first instance. Prosecutor Maffia, in fact, said he was “convinced and certain” that the murder of the lawyer Pagliuso “was a murder that originated in a mafia environment. And that it was carried out in typically mafia ways”. In his indictment Maffia, referring to the motive for the murder, had argued that “the lawyer Pagliuso was seen as an enemy by the Scalise gang of the ‘Ndrangheta from the moment he took on the defense of the rival Mezzatesta group, obtaining considerable procedural successes, to the point of determining his own death sentence”. The family members of the lawyer Pagliuso, the Criminal Chamber and the Bar Council of Lamezia Terme, the National Bar Council and the Municipalities of Lamezia Terme and Soveria Mannelli were all civil parties in the trial. Representing the civil parties are the lawyers Ferraro, Zofrea, Galeota, Staiano, Candido, Pietro and Gianfranco Agapito, Raimondi.
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