The Court of Trieste, acting as the Court for the review of personal precautionary measures, deciding on the request for review proposed by the lawyer Carmine Ippolito, in the interest of D'Antonio Pietro, in partial reform of the above-mentioned order issued by the GIP of the Court of Trieste on 6.9.2021, ordered the replacement of the ordered precautionary custody in prison, with the different measure
house arrest at the home of the suspect, subject to a different qualification of certain hypotheses of extortion in the less serious case of private violence and subject to the exclusion, with reference to all the types of crime being investigated, of the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method referred to in art. 416 bis point 1) of the criminal code;
that the Review Court reached these conclusions on the assumption that "[...] the systematic reading of the facts offered by the contested order appears to be the result of an over-interpretation of the objective data emerging from the investigation activity and tainted by verbal and emotional suggestions, which have determined an incorrect evaluation of the factual reality, which, with a colder, more aseptic and detached reading, leads to a considerable reduction in the gravity of the contested conduct, which is otherwise susceptible to a different legal qualification [...]"
that, with reference to the aggravating circumstance of the so-called mafia method, the Review Court reached the conclusion that the existence of such aggravating circumstance should be excluded on the basis that:
1. in the conduct of the accused, the latter never appeared to have suggested to the injured parties any kind of membership in organised crime;
2. that the defendants, during the protests which led to the events under investigation, nevertheless appeared to have maintained a dialogue with the institutions, represented on site by the commander of the Local Police, who had succeeded in obtaining the removal of the roadblocks;
3. that the defendants, from the results of the investigation, appeared to have simply presented themselves as champions of a protest of solidarity towards fellow market workers excluded from the holding of the markets organised in Bibione in August 2020;
4. that the defendants, although having also resorted to threatening attitudes during their protests, certainly did not indulge in the implementation of methods typical of mafia action.
That the Court of Cassation, Second Criminal Section, ruling on an appeal lodged by the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Trieste against the order of 5.10.2021, with which the Review Court had excluded the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method in the facts under investigation and had classified certain episodes in the less serious cases of private violence, ordered the annulment of that order, referring the case back to the Review Section of the Court of Trieste for a new trial, solely with regard to the determinations that that Court had reached in reference to the crimes referred to in chapters 1 and 5, and to the aggravating circumstance referred to in art. 416 bis point 1) of the Criminal Code;
that the Court of Trieste, following the referral hearing, with an order issued on 28.7.2022, definitively excluded the existence, in the case under investigation, of the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method referred to in art. 416 bis point 1) of the Criminal Code, reaching the same conclusions as the Review Court of Trieste, while adhering to the judgment criteria established by the Court of Cassation with the aforementioned annulment ruling;
that, in the motivation of this last provision, the Review Court of Trieste, among other things, clarified that the distinctive characteristics of the mafia method were not to be considered found in the case in question, not even taking into account the declarations made by the victims indicated in the provision of the Court of Cassation. On the specific point, in particular, the Review Court clarified that the references to the mafia method, made by the victims, rather than being based on objectively verifiable data, corresponded mostly to "personal perceptions of the declarants, perhaps connected to the Campanian origin of the subjects involved (geographical origin repeatedly mentioned in the declaration in the documents)";
that, following the final completion of the precautionary proceedings, in the proceedings pending against Pietro D'Antonio, the existence of the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method, which was originally deemed to exist, was definitively excluded. Pietro D'Antonio, therefore, after exclusion of the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method, already with a provision issued on 5.10.2021, was initially subjected to house arrest. Subsequently, this measure was also replaced by less afflictive precautionary obligations, until the revocation of all precautionary measures which was already ordered by the Review Court of Trieste with an order issued on 3.3.2022.
Article published on March 4, 2022 - 17pm
