Naples, the son of the boss Puca acquitted on appeal from the extortion charge

Naples – A significant ruling was issued by the Fourth Criminal Section of the Court of Appeal of Naples, presided over by Judge Vargas, who overturned the first and second degree convictions for Luigi Puca and Giuseppe D'Aponte.

In a judicial reversal, Puca, son of the boss of Sant'Antimo, Pasquale Puca known as 'o minorenne, was acquitted "because the fact does not exist", while D'Aponte saw the crime reclassified as arbitrary exercise of his own rights, with a sentence of one year in prison.

Both defendants had previously been sentenced in the first instance to 5 years and 8 months of imprisonment, a sentence confirmed also on appeal. The turning point came after the annulment with referral by the Court of Cassation, which had found critical issues in the evaluation of the reliability of the statements of the injured party.

The reasons for the reform: critical issues regarding the reliability of the injured party

The Court of Appeal reiterated the doubts already expressed by the Supreme Court regarding the reliability of the statements of the injured party. Specifically, the reasoning of the second-instance sentence was deemed lacking with respect to the detailed defense objections presented in the interest of Puca.

Puca's defense, represented by the lawyer Roberto Iacono, had highlighted repeated and serious discrepancies between the injured party's story and the documents certifying the give and take transactions between D'Aponte and the accuser.

Furthermore, the scope of the statements of the injured party – the only source of evidence against Puca – was contested in light of the absence of other evidence and the “suspicious silence” maintained by the complainant regarding the long-standing and friendly relationship he had with Puca until June 2019, the period in which D'Aponte's requests for the restitution of the sums of money had already begun.

The Court held that not even the arguments relating to the alleged falsity of Puca's alibi (concerning a meeting on March 7, 2020) or the compatibility of the statements on previous meetings can, by themselves, support the judgment of liability. In fact, these elements do not overcome the preliminary doubt on the reliability of the injured party's narrative, requiring a new evaluation.

The acceptance of the ground for appeal entailed the absorption of all other issues, logically dependent on the determination of liability. Giuseppe D'Aponte was defended by the lawyers Giaccio Antimo and Sepe Marco.