GENOA – Eight years after the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, which claimed the lives of 43 people, the verdict has arrived. Tomorrow, the Genoa Court will deliver its first-instance verdict at the end of one of the most complex and impressive trials in Italian judicial history.
Fifty-seven defendants appeared before the court, including former managers and technicians from Autostrade per l'Italia and its subsidiary Spea, responsible for maintenance, as well as officials from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Their charges, varying in nature, range from malicious collapse to multiple manslaughter, from attempting to undermine transport safety to forgery, including failure to perform official duties and the willful failure to provide safety devices in the workplace.
According to the Genoa Prosecutor's Office, the viaduct's collapse was caused by insufficient maintenance. Prosecutors Walter Cotugno and Marco Airoldi allege that the executives of Autostrade per l'Italia and Spea knowingly reduced maintenance investments to increase profits and distribute higher dividends to shareholders. The prosecution has requested a total prison sentence of approximately 400 years.
The main defendant is the former CEO of Autostrade per l'Italia and Atlantia, Giovanni Castellucci, for whom the Prosecutor's Office has requested a sentence of 18 years and six months in prison. For the former head of maintenance at ASPI, Michele Donferri Mitelli, the request is 15 years and six months.
Castellucci is already serving a final six-year sentence in Opera prison for the bus crash that occurred on July 28, 2013, when 40 people died from the Acqualonga viaduct in Avellino.
The proceedings, which began on July 7, 2022, consisted of 284 hearings. 282 witnesses and four experts were heard in court, while the number of civil parties admitted was initially 214, later reduced to 168 after several withdrawals.
The preliminary investigation's numbers are also impressive: 112 charges, 67 defense attorneys, 33 civil litigants, over 24 pages of transcripts, more than 10 pages of reports, and a document load exceeding 12 terabytes, including records, photographs, and videos.
The final hearing will begin tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. in the main courtroom of the Genoa Courthouse. After the deliberation of the panel presided over by Paolo Lepri, with judges Ferdinando Baldini and Fulvio Polidori, the verdict is expected this afternoon, concluding the first instance of one of the most symbolic trials in recent Italian history.
The article is long and seems serious but it also seems confusing. It talks about the collapse and the trial and the information is not always clear, 43 dead people, many hearings and documents. I would like the truth to come out and clarity to be achieved for all the families.