Salerno, usury trial: interest rates doubled

The trial against ML, a fifty-year-old from Salerno, charged with aggravated usury, began today. The case was moved to the courtroom following a request for an immediate trial.

The prosecution accuses the man of having committed the act against a person who was in a state of need, a circumstance which constitutes the aggravating circumstance provided for by law.

According to investigators' reconstruction, the affair originated with a €10 loan. That sum was then followed by requests for repayment deemed disproportionate: amounts that, according to the investigation documents, amounted to nearly 100 percent more than the initial amount disbursed.

The restitutions were allegedly demanded in installments that, over time, became increasingly higher. The prosecutor's office also reconstructed a pattern of insistent pressure and, in some cases, threatening demands directed at the alleged victim to obtain the payments.

The defendant's defense, represented by attorney Massimo Viscusi, has filed a motion for a summary trial. The judge has therefore scheduled the hearing for December 15th, when the parties will return to court for their respective closing arguments.