«I died that day with my husband Massimo. And what justice is this?”

PADUA – The ground fell beneath her feet last Thursday when she heard the judge of the monocratic court of Padua pronounce article 530 of the code of criminal procedure three times, that is, the one with which the accused is acquitted. In this case from the accusation of complicity in vehicular homicide for the accident that on the morning of March 17, 2017 killed the 58-year-old department head of the Camin mechanized postal center Massimo Bettinidecapitated in his car which, at the San Gregorio bridge, collided with the out-of-control stabilizer arm of an AcegasApsAmga van which was going from Camin to Prato della Valle.

She is Maria Teresa Zecchino and she is Bettini’s wife. The defendants were those for whom – for the death of her husband – the prosecutor’s office had requested sentences which were returned to the sender: article 530 of the code of criminal procedure. Acquittal, with the formula of not having committed the crime. «This sentence is absurd, obscene and it is not right that there are those who allow themselves “in the name of the law” to trample on the dignity of people, of those who are no longer here and of those who expect a minimum of justice » she now vents.

Mrs. Zecchino…
“We were not a civil party in the trial having received compensation from the insurance, but what we wanted was for justice to be done in Massimo’s name.”
Instead, three acquittals arrived after seven years divided between investigations and trials, first by the judge of the preliminary hearing, then in court. What did you feel when you heard the outcome?
«Last Thursday I was with my children Giulia, 35 years old, and Alberto, 31 years old. We never missed a single hearing, we listened to the entire hearing. When we heard the word “absolution” our brains went into water.”
For justice there are no culprits…
«And we are not even responsible for my husband’s death. Things? Did he do it all alone? As if he had had a heart attack driving his car on the way to work. The defense explained to the court that there was no certainty that anyone had touched the truck, that it was not possible to trace with certainty who was to hook the bar. At the end of the day it’s no one’s fault, it’s an injustice.”
A week has passed since that sentence, what are your feelings?
«Throughout the entire trial there was the writing in front of us that “the law is the same for everyone”. Now I don’t think so anymore. Or at least, it wasn’t for my husband. Passing over him in this way was killing him a second time, just as we too were killed a second time on Thursday, seven years later. I’m honest, at a certain point in the process we understood that there was a certain direction but we didn’t expect it to end like this.”
Have you ever seen the investigation papers?
«Yes, I know it very well as a file: it is a set of files of more than a thousand pages with detailed advice and one certainty, that the iron bar came loose and came out of the truck killing a person, whoever it was: even the prosecutor’s office went so far as to ask for heavy sentences, how was it possible that it ended like this? And I would say it even if it wasn’t Massimo.”
Seven years and two months have passed since that morning, how did you experience them?
«I died that day, with Massimo».
Who was her husband?
«He was the cornerstone of our family. We’ve known each other since we were kids and have always been together. Even our children, although young and although each following their own path, are still marked by what happened because it was not an illness which, however, underneath and mentally, in a certain sense also prepares you for what could happen . Instead it was a huge blow, very difficult to accept.”
Do you ever think back to that morning?
«Yes, and following the trial I am even more convinced that it was something that could have been avoided with a little more attention, also because those trucks, at that point, could not pass. This is murder.”
Yet the procedural truth says otherwise. What do you think?
«They massacred him once again, but does it seem right to you that there is no one guilty? Can the history, life and dignity of a person be trampled on like this?”.

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