Naples – A drastic reduction in sentences for the Benevento Camorra's descendants. The Naples Court of Appeals has significantly reduced the first-instance sentences handed down to two young men from Arpaia, sons of well-known local bosses, charged with a wide array of crimes, from extortion to assault, from weapons possession to domestic violence.
Those benefiting from the sentencing reform are a 27-year-old and a 37-year-old, whose sentences were significantly reduced after the Court accepted the defense arguments of lawyer Vittorio Fucci.
The first, the son of an alleged boss of the Massaro clan, will see his sentence reduced from 6 years and 8 months to just 4 years. The second, the son of a longtime criminal, believed to be close to the Pagnozzi clan and connected to the Massaro family, will have his sentence reduced from 4 years to 3.
An even more significant outcome for the latter considering that the prosecutor in the first instance had requested a sentence of 5 years and 20 days. Already in the first trial, the judge had partially granted the defense's requests, recognizing the flaw of semi-mental insanity.
The charges the two faced depicted particularly violent and intimidating criminal conduct.
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But the most serious incident involved an ambush on two young men from Airola. The two defendants forced the victims to stop their car, then slapped and punched them. The violence culminated with a knife being held to their throats and gunshots being fired, which also damaged the car.
The investigation also revealed a further, disturbing detail: one of the two defendants had several victims brought before his father, a prominent member of the Massaro clan, in a clear attempt to persuade them to withdraw their complaints.
Despite the prosecution's case and the Attorney General's request to uphold the first-instance convictions, the Court of Appeal followed Fucci's defense, reversing the sentence in favor of the defendants.
Despite the success achieved on appeal, the defense doesn't yet consider this outcome definitive. The lawyers are reportedly already considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation, perhaps to overturn the remaining years of the sentence and secure a new victory for their case.
Comments (1)
It's strange that the Court decided to reduce the sentences for two people who did very bad things. It's unfair that violence should be rewarded in this way; it should be more severe.