“They killed me twice. We waited ten years for the sentence, terrible agony and yesterday he gave me this stab. I’m devastated, I want justice and I hope it doesn’t take another ten years because I can’t do it and I’ll already be dead.” There is a lot of bitterness in the words spoken to the microphones of Tg3 Regione by Giovanna Lucchese, mother of Laura and Carmelo Mulone, the 7 and 9 year old children who died in September 2014 following the explosion of the small volcanoes in the Maccalube of Aragon after the sentence of court of Agrigento which acquitted all the accused.
Domenico Fontana, former president of Legambiente and former councilor for the environment of the Municipality of Agrigento, and Daniele Gucciardo, operator on duty in the Maccalube and current president of the Rabat club of Agrigento were acquitted on appeal for not having committed the crime. The first degree sentence was issued by the court of Agrigento on 30 January 2018: 6 years of imprisonment were inflicted on Fontana, and 5 years and 3 months on Gucciardo. Acquittal, however, “because the fact does not constitute a crime”, for the regional official Francesco Gendusa.
The former prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio challenged the acquittal verdict and the defenders of the two convicted men did the same: on appeal, therefore, everything was once again in question. The judges excluded the defendants from liability. The defenders have always maintained that it was an unpredictable event and could not have been avoided.
