The Court of Palmi acquitted with the formula “because the fact does not exist” all the defendants in the “Dear hospitality” trial born from an investigation into the Municipality of Varapodio and in particular into the management of the center for migrants seeking international protection, active in the “Villa Cristina” farmhouse from September 2016 to April 2018.
At the end of the ordinary trial, the charges were dropped for the mayor of Varapodio Orlando Fazzolari, accused together with the owner of the “Itaca” social cooperative Maria Giovanna Ursida, two clothing merchants, Carlo Cirillo and Ernesto Cruciani, and two inspectors of the Prefecture of Reggio Calabria, Pasquale Modafferi and Salvatore Del Giglio. The latter had been accused by prosecutors of having “falsely drawn up an inspection report” from 2017 and having failed to indicate “the failure of the Municipality of Varapodio to show interest in other cooperatives besides the ‘Itaca’ which was entrusted with the agreement for the management of services relating to the third sector of the same Municipality”. For this reason they were liable for ideological falsehood committed by the public official.
The accusation was dropped, as were the crimes contested by the Palmi Prosecutor’s Office against the mayor who, instead, was responsible for abuse of office, fraud in public supplies and corruption for acts contrary to official duties. If for these accusations he was acquitted “because the fact does not exist”, for the crime of ideological falsehood committed by a public official Fazzolari was acquitted “due to the particular tenuous nature of the fact”.
Finally, as regards the owner of the social cooperative «Itaca» Maria Giovanna Ursida, she was acquitted of the charges of fraud, corruption and forgery. The crime of embezzlement, however, was classified as embezzlement and, having been committed between 2016 and 2017, the Court declared it “extinguished due to the statute of limitations”.