The charges against the former mayor of Riace Domenico “Mimmo” Lucano collapse on appeal. The judges of the Court of Appeal of Reggio Calabria, in fact, have it sentenced to one year and six months in prisonwith a suspended sentence, against the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office for 10 years and 5 months and overturning the first instance sentence of the Court of Locri which had inflicted 13 years and 2 months in prison on him for criminal conspiracy, fraud, embezzlement, forgery and abuse of office.
From reading the dispositive it emerges that the Court acquitted Lucano of the most serious crimes. The Court acquitted all the other 17 defendants.
«It’s the end of a nightmare that in recent years has depressed me so much, humiliated me, offended me. It’s the end of a nightmare that for years, unjustly, made me look like a criminal in people’s eyes. Lucano was attacked, denigrated and accused, also at a political level and not only, therefore, at a judicial level, to destroy the “Riace model”, the extraordinary opportunity created to welcome hundreds of people in need and to revive and repopulate the centers of Calabria. At this point I hope that Rai also changes its mind and broadcasts the famous drama filmed with Fiorello in Riace.” To say it Mimmo Lucano after the appeal ruling.
Lucano was not in court today and awaited the verdict of the Court of Appeal in his home town of Riace. “Since I am also a common and mortal human being – he added – it is probable that in this matter I have made mistakes but of one aspect, in particular, I am sure, very sure and convinced: I have always acted with the objective and will to help the weakest and to contribute to the reception and integration of children, women and men who were fleeing from hunger, from war, from torture”. “A big thank you, however – concluded Lucano – I want to address, in particular , to my lawyers, to the late Antonio Mazzone, to Pisapia and Daqua, not my lawyers but my brothers, men and professionals who immediately understood that they were dealing with an innocent person.”
The lawyers: acquitted of serious crimes, justice has been done
«The fact does not exist due to the accusations of criminal association, abuse of office and waste transport and many other crimes for which he was convicted. Today Mimmo Lucano was acquitted of all serious crimes. Justice was done against a man who always worked in the sole and exclusive interest of the common good and the defense of the weakest.” This was declared by lawyers Andrea Dacqua and Giuliano Pisapia, defenders of Lucano, on the sidelines of the reading of the sentence of the Court of Appeal of Reggio Calabria.
“It is no coincidence – they add – in our speeches we spoke of «non-therapeutic fury» towards Lucan and of a distortion of the facts also due to a distorted use of wiretaps. Today the truth of the facts has been re-established regarding a man who has always acted in a disinterested manner. There is also a judge in Calabria.”