Latest news on the Rigopiano tragedy
November 27, 2024
06:01
On 18 January 2017 an avalanche hit the Rigopiano hotel in Farindola: 29 people died, 11 survived. After the appeal sentence at the trial which saw 22 acquittals and 8 convictions, the General Prosecutor’s Office of L’Aquila contests the reduction of sentences for the Province of Pescara and the Prefecture.
The avalanche that swept away the Rigopiano resort
Just over a month and they will be eight years have passed from tragedy. The enormous avalanche that engulfed the Rigopiano Gran Sasso Resort hotel in the municipality of Farindola, in the province of Pescara, is an image that is still as painful as printed in the mind.
Inside that structure, on January 18, 2017 there were 40 people. Only eleven survived, there were 29 deaths. After the first degree sentence in 2023, which started with a request from the prosecution to over 150 years for 29 defendantsand the appeal hearing of 14 February, which ended with eight convictions and 22 acquittals, today, Wednesday 27 November, the matter reaches Cassation.
The Deputy Attorney General will be the first to speak with the formulation of the requests condemnation. Then it will be up to the lawyers of the civil parties. The speeches are scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 28 November defenses and the sentence.
The local health authority demands payment of assistance to the mother of a victim from Rigopiano: she fainted knowing about her son
The decision of the Court of Appeal
After five hours of deliberation, the judges of the Court of Appeal of L’Aquila had confirmed the first degree sentences for the mayor of the Municipality of Farindola, Ilario Lacchettato 2 years and 8 months in prison for multiple manslaughter; for the two officials of the Province of Pescara Mauro Di Blasio and Paolo D’Inceccoboth aged 3 years and 4 months, responsible for the traffic and cleaning of the road that connected to the hotel; for the resort manager Bruno Di Tommaso (victim of the avalanche) and the technical report consultant for the sheds and verandas that gave way under the avalanche, Giuseppe Gattoboth six months for forgery.
Furthermore, the magistrates had condemned the former prefect of Pescara, Francesco Provoloto one year and 8 months in prison for forgery and refusal of official documents; the then chief of staff of the Prefecture of Pescara, Leonardo Biancofor forgery to one year and 4 months in prison; the municipal technician Enrico Colangeli 2 years and 8 months for manslaughter and multiple injuries.
The reasons for the appeal to the Court of Cassation
The appeal to the third degree of judgment against the 22 acquittals came from Attorney General of L’Aquilaled by prosecutor Alessandro Mancini. Over 100 pages in which the reduction of sentences for the Province of Pescara and the Prefecture is contested.
In its reasons, the Prosecutor’s Office points the finger towards the predictability of risk and prevention, in addition to the management of rainfall. In one passage we read how the disaster would not have happened “if not with the complicity in negligent omissions by multiple bodies”, i.e. the Municipality and Region in the prevention and forecasting of risks in the mountain area of reference, as well as the Province and Prefecture in the management phase of thesnow emergency.
“If even just one of these had correctly fulfilled the duties associated with their institutional role, the disaster, deaths and injuries they would not have occurred“, he continues, reiterating that, in this way, “the hotel would not have been built”, it would not have been usable after a “specific eviction order” or “it would have been served by a passable road, the only escape route of the structure”.
On the other hand, the L’Aquila Court of Appeal excluded the validity of most of the contested crime hypotheses, the responsibility of individual defendants for the failure to adopt the Avalanche danger location map (absent since 1992, ndr) and the Municipality of Farindola for the predictability of the avalanche itself.
Finally, the General Prosecutor’s Office also contests the acquittal of Provolo and other officials of the Prefecture on misdirection and concealment of the phone call rescue launched by Gabriele D’Angelo, one of the 29 victims.
Survivors and families of victims: “There will be no justice”
“It won’t be there justice for the victims of Rigopiano. I’m sure that the State will not condemn the State”. The words of Marco Foresta36 years old, one of the survivors of the tragedy, have the taste of bitterness. “I don’t know what to expect: if the Court of Cassation confirms what has already been done so far, in my opinion, there has been no justice”, he said instead Giampaolo Matronesaved after 62 hours under the rubble and who lost his wife in Rigopiano, Valentina Cicioni.
These are the considerations collected by the Republic during the presentation of the docufilm “And then the silence. The Rigopiano disaster – The series”. It leaves a glimmer of optimism Gianluca MarkMarco’s brother, on the pages of The Messenger: “I believe it, we still believe it in justice and we hope that the Supreme Court upholds this trust of ours. The 29 deaths from the Rigopiano avalanche are a national disgrace, unfortunately one of many, and all Italians perceived it as such.”
Source: www.fanpage.it
