Will be held next September 13th the hearing of the ‘Ambiente Svenduto’ appeal trial on the alleged environmental disaster caused by the former Ilva, in which judge Del Coco will read the Court’s provision which will decide on all the issues raised in the seven hearings held from April 19th to today. Starting with the most anticipated decision, the one on the possible acceptance of the legitimate suspicion raised by the defense lawyers, which would entail the annulment of the first degree trial and therefore of the sentence issued, with the transfer of the trial to Potenza which would start again from scratch (without forgetting the fact that several crimes have in fact reached the statute of limitations such as extortion and as probable also manslaughter). This is what was communicated today by the president of the Court of Assizes of Appeal Antonio Del Colo (flanked by judge Ugo Bassi and the popular jury), during the seventh hearing held in the bunker courtroom of the old headquarters of the Court of Appeal, in the Paolo VI district.
Today was the turn of the lawyers defending the civil parties to reply to the defense’s objections, after the Attorney General’s Office took the floor for the first time last week, represented for the occasion by the Deputy Attorney General Dr. Mario Antonio Barruffa, supported by one of the prosecutors for the prosecution, Dr. Giovanna Cannarile (now serving in Lecce), which also includes prosecutors Raffaele Graziano, Remo Epifani and Mariano Buccoliero. Most of the lawyers followed the line of the Attorney General’s Office, asking the Court to reject all the procedural issues and exceptions of nullity raised by the defense team in previous hearings and defending the sentence of May 2021 with which the judges of the Court of Assizes of Taranto sentenced the defendants in the first instance to over 200 years of prison. But the defenders of the civil parties have above all pointed the finger at the order of 17 May 2024, with which the College of the Court of Assizes of Appeal deemed it necessary to order the suspension of the amounts awarded to the civil parties in the first instance sentence as provisionals (essentially advances pending the arrival of the possible final sentence of conviction), equal to 5000 euros for over 1500 civil parties, requesting their suspension. Also supporting the cause is Codacons, with Carlo Rienzi, who has presented to the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Taranto a request to obtain the doubling of the provisional amount awarded to the victims of the former Ilva represented by the association, in addition to requesting the acquisition of photographic material (projected in the courtroom) and a book in which the entire history of the trial is collected.
However, the Court rejected these requests (without even meeting in the Council Chamber), reiterating what was established in the order: that is, that the first instance sentence issued by the Assize Court contained numerous critical issues on this point.. In fact, the judge explained that precisely by virtue of the fact that there are as many as 1500 civil parties, it is economically burdensome for the defendants to pay such a large number of subjects, but above all if the defendants were acquitted it would in fact be almost impossible to obtain restitution of that money: we are talking about a figure close to 7.5 million euros. Another contested aspect is the fact that these provisional sentences were imposed on all the defendants, an aspect that immediately made the defenses turn up their noses, as if they were all guilty at the same level and for the same crimes (thesis between the lines confirmed even then at the hearing): very simply, anyone accused of the crime of pollution and environmental disaster or manslaughter certainly cannot be equated with someone responsible for crimes against the public administration.
Codacons also requested “the immediate seizure of the former Ilva plant, with the aim of blocking carcinogenic emissions from the steelworks. The request comes after the recent decision of the EU Court according to which in the presence of serious and relevant dangers for the environment and human health, the operation of the Taranto steelworks must be suspended”. “The Attorney General, who could make a similar request, at the moment does not seem willing to act, but in doing so he must take responsibility for other deaths and other births of malformed children due to Taranto’s pollution – declared the president Carlo Rienzi -. At the end of today’s hearing, the Court nevertheless forwarded the seizure request to the Public Prosecutor’s Office so that he can take action on it.” The association’s request is frankly incomprehensible, given the fact that the plants in the hot area have been under seizure since the summer of 2012. Perhaps Codacons wanted to ask for the immediate production stoppage of the former Ilva? Maybe…
So everything postponed until September. When the history of the former Ilva could be rewritten for the umpteenth time. we’ll see.
(reread all the articles on the ‘Ambiente Svenduto’ process https://www.corriereditaranto.it/?s=ambiente+svenduto&submit=Go)
