Salerno – The search for the truth surrounding Angelo Vassallo's murder has once again hit a wall of procedural delays. At the Salerno Judicial Center, what was supposed to be the fourth preliminary hearing ended in a stalemate: everything was postponed until March 27. The cause? The substitution of the lawyer for one of the defendants, Lazzaro Cioffi, which triggered the application of Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
A technically legitimate step, but for the Angelo Vassallo Foundation it represents yet another "funny ploy" to gain time.
The postponement strategy
According to the family of the mayor of Pollica, killed in 2010, we are witnessing a "ball-passing" among defense attorneys aimed at dragging out the proceedings until the summer. "We are not looking for shortcuts," thunders the Foundation's President, Dario Vassallo, "but we cannot accept that the right to defense becomes a tool to indefinitely postpone such a crucial trial." The fear is that, between quibbles and last-minute substitutions, the justice system will end up stalling, delaying the indictment, which the Foundation expects to be held up by July.
"Trial of a failed state"
The central point raised by the Vassallo brothers doesn't just concern the individual defendants, who include Carabinieri officers like Colonel Cagnazzo. The criticism is broader: "This isn't a trial for misdirection, it's a trial for complicity in mafia-style murder," Dario Vassallo clarifies. "We're putting on trial a system that for fifteen years left only one honest mayor, and now risks killing him a second time."
The charges are serious: they involve members of the institutions who failed in their protective role, becoming, according to the prosecution, an integral part of the criminal scenario.
A fifteen-year wait
For Massimo Vassallo, vice president of the Foundation, every postponement is an open wound: "After 15 years, the preliminary hearing is still stalled. It's a humiliation for our family and an insult to citizens who believe in the rule of law." Despite their disappointment, the family reiterates their full confidence in the work of the Prosecutor's Office and the Public Prosecutor, convinced that the solidity of the evidence will finally bring those responsible to justice.
The Foundation's goal remains clear: to prevent the truth from being held hostage by procedural strategies, so that Angelo Vassallo's sacrifice does not remain an unsolved case in the courts.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
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