The Prosecutor General asked the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro to confirm the sentences imposed at first instance with the abbreviated rite to the two financiers of the sea accused of the shipwreck of the “Heaven” boat, which took place on 30 August 2020 off the coast of Praialonga, for a fire broke out on board that cost the life of four of the winds that were on the boat. This can be summarized the indictment that today the deputy prosecutor general has exposed in the hearing of the second degree process. During which the representative of the public prosecution advanced to the judges to reiterate the 2 years in prison each (with suspended penalty) that the gup of the Court of Crotone, on May 27, 2024, influenced both Captain Vincenzo Barbangelo (37 years old, of Potenza), commander of the Naval Operational Section of the Guardia di Finanza of Crotone, and to the Marshal Andrea Novelli (37, Bari). Marittima “V817” who intervened to save foreigners.
The two soldiers were recognized responsible for the crimes of culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter aggravated for having caused the sinking of the boat on the occasion of the rescue of the refugees intercepted at the height of Simeri Crichi. As retraced in the classroom by the PG, Barbangelo and Novelli would have given “the order to navigate towards the farthest port of Crotone” in “absence of the safety conditions”, instead of “directing” the “Heaven” to the “closest port of Catanzaro Lido”, without activating “promptly the SAR procedure”, that is, of “research and rescue”, in the light of the “Avaria” that affected the boat during the journey. In this way, according to the investigative thesis, the two hypotheses would have been discarded: on the one hand of “landing” migrants and on the other to “transboria from them” on an “other and safer boat”.
The hearing then continued with the discussion of the lawyer Pasquale Carolei, who assists Andrei Novelli and Vincenzo Barbangelo. The defender, cards in hand, tried to disassemble the reconstruction of the general prosecutor, underlining the good work carried out by the financiers in completing the rescue of refugees and not attributing them any responsibility for the outbreak on the “Heaven”. On January 9, 2026 there will be the latest defensive discussions before reading the sentence.