After being sentenced to 6 months in first instance last year, the centre-right municipal councilor of Reggio Calabria Massimo Ripepi was acquitted on appeal of the charge of personal aiding and abetting against a man, now deceased, who had been accused of sexual violence against his own niece, a 10-year-old girl.
The sentence was issued today by the Court of Appeal of Reggio Calabria. Ripepi himself, coordinator for Calabria of «Alternativa Popolare», made this known on social media.
The story dates back to 2020 when the city councilor was accused, in particular, according to what is reported in the indictment, “of having helped a suspect for sexual violence to elude investigations”.
At the end of the appeal process, the judges accepted the thesis of Ripepi’s defenders, the lawyers Carlo Morace and Mario Santambrogio. «Today I am not just celebrating the end of a nightmare, but the triumph of the truth – declared the city councilor -. Being told that “the fact does not exist” is a liberation that I struggle to describe. There have been over five years of atrocious suffering, linked to an infamous accusation. If I hadn’t believed in the one true God Jesus Christ I probably wouldn’t have made it.”