The newly re-elected Bari city councilor, the lawyer Nicola Loprieno, will be tried for possession and dealing of narcotic substances. For the political exponent, reconfirmed at Palazzo di Città with the latest administrative elections, among the most supported on the Decaro per Bari list in support of the new mayor Vito Leccese, the trial will open on January 9th. Ansa reports it.
The decision was taken by the Court of Appeal of Bari, accepting the appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office. Last December, the investigators had challenged Loprieno’s acquittal sentence, issued last October by the judge for the preliminary hearing Antonella Cafagna.
According to the charges, Loprieno, together with his colleague and friend Gaetano Filograno, allegedly arranged for the lover and current partner of Filograno’s ex-wife to be found in possession of drugs during a Guardia di Finanza check in 2014. The man, who had reported Filograno for stalking a few days before the check, was arrested: 26 grams of cocaine were found in his car. However, he was fully acquitted three years later.
Filograno, who had chosen the abbreviated procedure, had been acquitted together with Loprieno by the preliminary hearing judge (despite supporting the hypothesis that there could be an ongoing conspiracy to frame the man) “because the fact does not exist”. Following the appeal by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Court of Appeal therefore decided to commit the newly re-elected municipal councilor to trial. In a few days, however, Gaetano Filograno’s position will be examined.
