The owner of the company for which Edison Malaj worked, the Albanian construction worker who died on February 16, 2024 on a construction site in Frascineto after being crushed by some concrete slabs, has been sent to trial on charges of manslaughter. The first hearing of the trial has been set for December 9th in the Castrovillari Court. The decision to commit Filippo di Lauro to trial was taken in the early afternoon of today by the Gup of the Castrovillari Court Carmen Lodovica Bruno at the end of the council chamber. During the preliminary hearing, the judge had already accepted the request to join as a civil party advanced by the Filea CGIL Cosenza Pollino trade union. “We are satisfied with the decision taken by the Gup and we trust in justice so that the family members of Edison Malaj can obtain the answers they deserve and that light can finally be shed on what happened”, commented the lawyer Francesco Saverio Chiaradia, lawyer for the victim’s family.
The family’s statements
“We are here with the hope of finally getting justice.” Edison Malaj’s family members participated this morning in the sit-in promoted by Fillea CGIL in front of the Castrovillari courthouse, on the occasion of the preliminary hearing before the preliminary hearing judge Carmen Lodovica Bruno.
The daughter: «This tragedy has upset our existence»
It was her daughter Sara who asked for justice, present with her mother Silvana and brother Gabriele. «We are here to fight and make sure that what happened to my father never happens to anyone else again. This tragedy has completely upset our existence, but we have chosen to gather all our strength to fight.”
«Change is possible, but it must start from those who really believe in it», he added, thanking the union for its support: «We believe in it and we don’t want to be left alone. Unfortunately he was the victim of a ruthless system that claims an unacceptable number of lives every day.”
Fillea CGIL asks for protection for families
Alongside the family members, there were representatives of the CGIL construction workers’ union. «We are here to support the family in following a procedure that is still taking its first steps. Assisting the families of the victims is a precise task and duty for us”, declared Giuseppe De Lorenzo, general secretary of Fillea Cgil Cosenza-Pollino. De Lorenzo asked that those who die at work be recognized in all respects as victims of duty: “It is necessary to put families in a position to face trials without the nightmare of legal costs, extending the guarantees of free legal aid.”