The General Command of the Port Authorities allegedly denied the Crotone Carabinieri the direct acquisition of the conversations recorded on the night between 25 and 26 February 2023, when the Steccato di Cutro shipwreck occurred in which 94 people died. The detail emerged during the sixth hearing of the trial on the alleged delays in the rescue of the gulet “Summer Love”.
According to what was reported in the courtroom by the soldiers of the Carabinieri’s investigative unit who conducted the investigations on behalf of the Prosecutor’s Office, direct access to the IT systems of the IMRCC (Italian maritime rescue coordination centre) in Rome was not allowed for “security reasons”.
The recordings delivered on DVD
Marshal Salvatore Talerico and Lieutenant Cosimo Minosa explained that «the General Command preferred to transfer the data onto a blank DVD, then handed over to the investigators, to avoid potential risks of “contamination” of the systems via spyware or malware».
«Illustrating the security issue was Captain Gianluca D’Agostino who received us in Rome», specified Minosa, highlighting that «the acquisition was made by an operator from the Captaincy. Next to us were the prosecutor’s consultant and us.”
The discrepancy between the audios
The cross-examination of the witnesses, requested by the defendants’ lawyers, then highlighted a technical discrepancy between the audio files acquired at the IMRCC in Rome and those taken from the V Mrsc of the Capitaneria of Reggio Calabria.
The audio extracted in Rome would be missing a fragment of conversation present in the Reggio Calabria file, relating to an exchange between the regional Coast Guard and the Roan of the Financial Police of Vibo Valentia. The missing sentence in the Roman support would be: «At the moment… we… units to be sent out… not».
The six defendants in the trial
The trial sees four officers of the Financial Police and two of the Coast Guard accused: Alberto Lippolis, commander of the Roan of Vibo Valentia; Giuseppe Grillo, shift manager of the Roan operations room; Antonino Lopresti, Gdf tactical commanding officer; Nicolino Vardaro, commander of the Gdf Taranto air-naval group; Francesca Perfido, IMRCC Rome officer; and Nicola Nania, serving at the V Mrsc of Reggio Calabria.