For having placed an explosive device in front of the “La serra” restaurant, with the aim of intimidating the owners and extorting protection money from them, a Calabrian turncoat was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
On the night of January 24, 2020, in via Aldo Moro a cleaner heard a small explosion outside the premises. He noticed a backpack with a smoking fuse next to a shop window and called the police who, having secured the area, began the investigation. With video surveillance, a hooded individual was identified near the restaurant, shortly before the explosion, and then a car, registered to the partner of a Calabrian already known to justice, domiciled in Rome in the section of collaborators of justice. The latter was therefore accused of attempted extortion and possession of explosive material. According to the prosecution, the bomb was supposed to scare the owners of the place, Emanuele and Moreno Ascani, and thus force them to pay money or to let the Calabrian join the company.
Yesterday, in the last court hearing in Macerata, the prosecutor Enrico Riccioni asked for the accused to be convicted for the attempted extortion, and for acquittal for the bomb: the bomb had in fact been made with fertilizer and another substance, sugar or diesel, but in fact it would never have exploded. The Calabrian’s defense lawyer instead maintained the total innocence of his client. But in the end the court agreed with the prosecutor’s reconstruction and sentenced the accused to three and a half years in prison. The Calabrian is detained for another reason, has numerous criminal records and is now a collaborator of justice. But as soon as he was accused of this episode, he also tried to bring up a person as the instigator who, however, turned out to be completely unrelated to the affair.
The two owners of “Serra” are satisfied, defended by the lawyers Gabriele and Massimiliano Cofanelli. For compensation, they would have to start a civil lawsuit which, however, would bring few results.
