The Court of Appeal of Catanzaro acquitted the two soldiers of the Financial Police who had been convicted at first instance for the death of four migrants, who died in the explosion of the “Heaven” boat which occurred on 30 August 2020 off the coast of Crotone. The verdict was issued by the panel chaired by judge Antonio Battaglia (alongside judges Paola Ciriaco and Abigail Mellace). The Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Crotone Gup which, in May 2024, had inflicted two years of imprisonment (suspended sentence) on Captain Vincenzo Barbangelo, at the time commander of the naval operational section of Crotone, and on Marshal Andrea Novelli, commander of the patrol boat involved. In the courtroom the prosecution had requested confirmation of the first degree sentence for the crimes of shipwreck and multiple manslaughter.
The facts dating back to August 30, 2020
The Court instead accepted the arguments of the defense panel, composed of lawyers Pasquale Carolei, Paolo Carnuccio and Tiziano Saporito, acquitting the defendants. The facts date back to 30 August 2020. The boat, intercepted with 20 migrants on board in the stretch of sea between Praialonga and Simeri (another 13 had already disembarked), exploded while it was being taken towards the port of Crotone under the control of the Financial Police. Four people died in the fire: Omar Ali Osman, Abdirahman Nur Abdullahi and two migrants who were never identified. The Prosecutor’s Office had accused the military of negligence and incompetence for not having carried out the transfer of the migrants onto the naval units, preferring to tow the sailing ship. A thesis that had led to the abbreviated sentence, despite the technical report not having clarified the causes of the fire that then caused the explosion. With today’s acquittal, all the soldiers involved are definitively out of the legal case: already at first instance, in fact, the judge had ordered that the other two financiers, Maurizio Giunta and Giovanni Frisella, who were physically on board the vessel at the time of the explosion and who were injured in the explosion, should not proceed. The story had aroused strong emotion because, immediately after the explosion, the financiers themselves – although injured – had thrown themselves into the sea to save the survivors. A behavior that initially earned them the applause of the institutions, before the opening of the investigation transformed the rescuers into defendants.