Benevento
He brought quite a lot of documents with him. As soon as he sat down before the Court – he will remain there for four hours – he declined his personal details, then the president of the judging panel, Fallarino (alongside Telaro and Nuzzo), after having reminded him that he could make use of the right not to answer, told him asked if he intended to undergo the test. Felice Panzone, one of the 36 defendants in the trial arising from the Digos investigation into the management of some migrant centers in Sannio, had been waiting for this moment for a long time and had no doubts: “Of course yes”.
The initial questions of the prosecutor Patrizia Filomena Rosa, which were followed by those of her defender, the lawyer Alessio Lazazzera, and the lawyers Pietro Farina (he insisted on an intercepted interview with his client, Paolo Di Donato) and Antonella Maffei, have allowed us to specify that “in July 2015 I was transferred from the Ariano Irpino police station to the Benevento Prefecture, assigned to the administrative-accounting service. In October, when he replaced Circelli, the deputy prefect Giuseppe Canale decided to make use of my collaboration in the immigration service. Until December 2016 I was the front office of the same service, Canale had entrusted me with the task of speaking with those who needed information or wanted to open centres”.
In that period – he continued – “I dealt with the problems of 75 structures with 3 thousand guests, I knew every day how many places they had available, but it was always Canale who assigned the migrants, I have never done it nor could I have done it, except on one occasion” . The official, who has also been suspended from his salary since 2018, revealed the contours of an unknown episode: “Canale received a request from the Flying Squad to find a place in absolute secrecy for a witness of justice in an investigation into human trafficking conducted in another province. He gave me this task, I carried it out, I don’t think I can reveal the placement given anonymously to the woman: it was the only time I chose”.
Panzone then underlined “the obsessive search for places at a time when Benevento and the province, with the daily arrival of migrants, had been hit by a tsunami”. A representation to which the Prosecutor contrasted the number of arrivals (5 thousand) throughout Italy. He also reiterated that, with respect to the assignments, the “The Prefecture did not favor or disfavor anyone, we had a mission that however failed: to open a center in every town”, then he cited the case, which emerged “while the competitions were completed”, two “beautiful bed & breakfasts in the center of Benevento were given to 20 women suffering from scabies. The owner welcomed them, then gave up, he wasn’t ready….”.
As for overcrowding, the accused traced it back to “to the redundant condition in which the Prefecture had placed all the centers: we were obliged to do so for emergency reasons”. Finally, in relation to the content of some interceptions, he explained “the joviality of certain chats between two males whose transcribed text does not contain smiles and laughter”and that the Prefecture “every month he witnessed the delivery of the pocket of 2 and a half euros to each migrant by the center manager”.
However, the examination of another defendant, Giuseppe Pavone (lawyer Luca Guerra), an employee of the Court, called into question for two charges of fraud against the State regarding absences from the workplace due to illness or permits linked to law 104 which he would have used for deliveries on behalf of his spouse’s company.
