Volturno Castle. The case of the attack on the then mayor of Milan on 12 October 2017 ended with a nine-month prison sentence. Castel Volturno, Dimitri Russo and a policeman who intervened in defense of the public administrator.
The sole judge Francesca Auriemma of the Court of Santa Maria Capua Vetere has in fact convicted the defendant Francesco Russo for resisting a public official and causing injury. The attack occurred during an unauthorized demonstration carried out by friends and acquaintances of a 16-year-old who died the day before in a road accident and who lived in the degraded neighborhood of Destra Volturno.
Tempers were high at the demonstration, given the various and serious accusations against the mayor that had been circulating on social media: some accused Dimitri Russo of not having given the go-ahead for the torchlight procession in memory of the dead 16-year-old, others of being the main person responsible for the accident given the presence of potholes in the asphalt; Russo was also attacked because the rumor spread that the fatal accident had been caused by an African immigrant on a bike.
During the unauthorized march, three people, at the sight of the mayor, approached him and beat him up, then a policeman stepped in to defend the mayor and was beaten by a fourth attacker, precisely Francesco Russo, the only one who ultimately paid for what happened. Of the other three attackers, one was then under house arrest and is now in prison but has never been investigated, another died while the son of the latter, who was 17 at the time, was acquitted by the juvenile court.
All three accusations against Russo that circulated on social media were denied, since the accident occurred because the 16-year-old overtook a stopped van and then ran over the boy on the bike, who was therefore the victim; Russo also did not say "no" to the march, but only declared his incompetence, telling the organizers to go to the State Police Station.
In a post on Facebook, the former mayor of Castel Volturno hopes, addressing the convicted man, now 25 years old, "that this sentence (which I regret), will make him understand that there are better paths in life and better friends, than the civil degradation of Destra Volturno.
In the courtroom I looked into his eyes, I saw kind eyes, certainly not those of a criminal. And I am sure that he is not. He, as often happens, was infected by the crowd, by the moment, by his less than recommendable 'friends'. I hope that this sentence will be a warning for the latter too".
Article published on May 13, 2022 - 14:08 pm
