The pizza chef and restaurateur was sentenced to life imprisonment Salvatore Aldobrandi, 75 years old, originally from San Sosti (Cosenza), but resident in Sanremo for years, accused of voluntary homicide aggravated by abject motives for having killed Sargonia Dankha, 21 years old, of Iraqi origins, naturalized Swedish, who disappeared into thin air in the early afternoon of November 13, 1995 in Linköping, Sweden. The provisions of the sentence were read in the afternoon after a weekend of deliberation by the president of the Court of Assizes of Imperia, Carlo Alberto Indellicati.
Aldobrandi’s sentence follows the requests of prosecutors Maria Paola Marrali and Matteo Gobbi. In addition to the life sentence, a new provisional amount of 300 thousand euros is added in favor of Sargonia’s mother, 100 thousand euros for her brother and 14 thousand euros for the legal costs of the civil party. Aldobrandi’s defence, supported by the lawyer Fabrizio Cravero, concluded by asking for the taking of “the requested evidence” or the hearing of other witnesses and acquittal “because the fact does not exist” and in the alternative the “exclusion of recidivism, the non-existence of the contested aggravating circumstance and the granting of mitigating circumstances”. Following the reading of the dispositive decision, he announced that he will wait to hear the reasons and then appeal.
PM: “I exaggerate, satisfaction for Italy”
“It was truly a great satisfaction: for us, for our office and I like to say, perhaps I exaggerate, for Italy which was able to give a response of justice after so many years to a family affected by a very serious event.” This the immediate comment of the prosecutor Maria Paola Marrali, leaving the Imperia courtroom, after the life sentence given to Salvatore Aldobrandi. During the indictment last Friday, Marrali had cited a case similar to this, that of Roberta Ragusa, whose husband Antonio Logli was arrested and convicted despite the absence of the body. Citing the Supreme Court ruling, he said: “It is not an accidental death otherwise we would have found the body, and then it is certainly a homicidal death.” Satisfaction also for my colleague Matteo Giobbi: «There was hope, but it is clear that during a trial and an investigation, there are many moments in which things can go well or not so well. The important thing is to have a clear final objective and we thought we had it, without any kind of problem, in having to move forward.”
Civil party: there is an end to the matter
«We are really very happy for us and for the family, who unfortunately could not handle the emotions of Friday and returned to Sweden. We have already contacted her and they are very happy, because even if this process will not give Sargonia back to them, they will be able to put an end to this thirty-year affair.” Talking is the lawyer Francesco Rubino, civil party of Sargonia Dankha’s family, which thus comments on the first degree life sentence of Salvatore Aldobrandi, accused of the girl’s murder. “We were convinced that the Court would believe our reconstructions – he added – that there was sufficient evidence and that the enormous work of the police in 1995, of the Imperia prosecutor’s office and then of us, to open this trial, was finally recognised” . Rubino concludes: «And it was recognized not only that Aldobrandi committed a murder, but that he committed it in particular circumstances, that is, with abject motives: a constant relationship characterized by possession and obsession, what today has determined the life imprisonment.”