Bomb scare to prevent hearing: fugitive's lover on trial

The Benevento Public Prosecutor's Office, headed by Aldo Policastro, has requested the indictment of a 32-year-old woman from Benevento. She faces charges of aggravated threats to the judiciary, causing alarm, disrupting a public service, aiding and abetting, and impersonation. The case in which she is involved is linked to the planting of a fake explosive device consisting of a cardboard stick wrapped in the shape of dynamite with wires protruding from it to act as a remote trigger. The device was found in one of the restrooms of the Benevento courthouse on December 20, 2016, after two threatening phone calls. This was also linked to the fugitive status of entrepreneur Paolo Messina Jr. The investigations delegated by the prosecutors to the Flying Squad, including through technical investigations, confirmed that the cell phone used by the anonymous caller who reported the presence of the fake bomb was in the possession of the woman, who was in a relationship with Messina. The purpose of the report was to prevent the hearing of Messina's trial on that day, where he was accused of murdering Antonello Rossiello, a rival businessman, in 2013. The courthouse was evacuated. When Messina was captured in Croatia in November 2017, investigators also confirmed the existence of his romantic relationship and traced the phone numbers used by the fugitive and the woman to communicate. Both were registered to minors with no connection to the incident, but whose documents had been copied. The woman also attempted to recover a large sum of money owed to Messina by a creditor, so that he could continue his fugitive status. Messina was later sentenced by the Benevento Assize Court to 25 years in prison, a sentence reduced to 22 years and six months on appeal.