Another 90 days will be needed for the sentence in the «Xenia» trial. This was decided by the Court of Appeal of Reggio Calabria, requesting an extension for the filing of the reasons with which, on 11 October, the former mayor of Riace Mimmo Lucano acquitted the former mayor of Riace Mimmo Lucano of almost all 19 charges. After the first degree sentence of 13 years and 2 months in prison, in fact, the judges of the Court of Appeal practically overturned the sentence of the Court of Locri, sentencing Lucano to 18 months of imprisonment, with a suspended sentence, for a single related forgery to one of the 57 resolutions that had been charged to him by the prosecution as part of an investigation into the management of migrant reception projects in the Municipality of Riace. For all the other forgeries, as well as for the charges of criminal association, fraud, abuse of office and embezzlement, the second degree judges acquitted Lucano, defended by the lawyers Andrea Daqua and Giuliano Pisapia.
The reasons will be contained in the sentence which, at this point, could be filed within 90 days. A term which, however, is not peremptory but which has become necessary not only due to the workload of the judges of the Court of Appeal. The extension was motivated by the fact that the “proceeding in question – the magistrates write – is characterized by the uncommon complexity and delicacy of the matters dealt with”. For judge Davide Lauro, member of the panel of the Court of Appeal, the trial of Mimmo Lucano «requires a careful and analytical reconstruction of the elements of evidence, of an interceptive and declarative nature, as well as the powerful documentary production of the defenses, as well as the resolution of various legal issues, both on a procedural level and in terms of the exact legal qualification of the disputed conduct”.