- Mimmo Lucano remains outside the city council. Only the third list is "Il cielo sopra Riace"
- Mimmo Lucano returns to Riace for the rally and for the vote
- Riace: another investigation on Lucano, accused of fraud and forgery
- Migrant management in Riace, Mimmo Lucano indicted together with 26 other suspects
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11 June 2019The trial before the Court of Locri against the former mayor of Riace, Domenico Lucano and other 26 people for the alleged wrongdoing in the management of the reception system for migrants in the center of Locride was postponed to Monday 17 June. This morning's hearing was taken up with an examination of the preliminary exceptions presented by the defendants' defenders. The panel, chaired by Fulvio Accurso, reserved the right to decide on the preliminary exceptions, fixing the resumption of the trial next Monday.Lucano: "It is not a political process"
"I do not consider this to be a political process in Locri, but my story has hurt me so much. I have always worked for the weak and the marginalized. And I have committed myself to a human society that is not inhuman". This was said by the former mayor of Riace, Domenico Lucano, talking to journalists in Locri before the first hearing of the trial that sees him accused, along with other 26 people, of irregularities and crimes that would have been committed in the center of the Locride to welcome migrants and manage their presence. "I could not live - Lucano added - away from social, human and political commitment without necessarily occupying roles. The beautiful story of Riace began long before I became mayor "An experience that can continue, beyond what has happened, bringing forward the ideas that underlie it".
The reference to the words of Pope Francis
"What is happening in this last period about the phenomenon of migrants, in general, represents a real human emergency - continued the former mayor of Riace, Domenico Lucano -. As Pope Francis said, when they close the ports for human beings and instead leave themselves open for the trafficking of arms, we are in the presence of a world that is adrift ".
"So many people have suffered more than me"
"Being subjected to precautionary measures is like having a penalty immediately before the trial begins. I remain aware that there are, even in history, many people who have suffered and suffer more serious things than me and the awareness that there are so many people in Italy who are in solidarity and give me the feeling of not being alone ". This is what was declared to journalists by the former mayor of Riace, Domenico Lucano, in front of the Locri courthouse.
The Xenia operation
The accusations disputed by the Prosecutor of Locri to the suspects are, in various ways, criminal association, fraud with pecuniary damage to the State, abuse of office, embezzlement, bribery, fraud in public supplies, forgery and facilitation of illegal immigration. "Xenia" operation that involved Lucano dates back to 2 October last year. Lucano was subjected to house arrest on the charge of
facilitation of illegal immigration and fraudulent direct assignment of the waste collection service. A survey that was born after the findings of the first inspection of alleged irregularities in the management of the migrant project, and that despite the second inspection, in favor of the "Riace model",
a few days after Lucan's arrest, he determined the Interior Ministry to withdraw the funding, imposing 34 penalty points, and the closure of the Sprar, with the migrants to be transferred away from Riace; exclusion then deemed illegitimate by the TAR. Subsequently the precautionary measure was
attenuated by the Court of Review, which, again in October last year, ordered the ban on residing in Riace for Lucano, the mayor that the US magazine "Fortune" had included among the 50 most influential people in the world, thanks to the model of reception of migrants experienced in
his country.
Still in exile
Meanwhile, exile remains in Riace for the former mayor, Domenico Lucano, involved in an investigation by the Locri Procuratorate in which, in 2018, house arrest was ordered for him, then revoked. Lucano is accused of a series of crimes related to the management of the reception of migrants in the center of Locride, a "model" that has made notoriety in Riace and Lucano also at international level. This morning, just before the trial against Lucano and 26 other people for the facts that had led to the arrest of the mayor began in front of the Court of Locri, it was learned that the Court of Locri rejected a new instance of the defenders of Lucan to revoke the ban on staying in Riace against him, prepared as an alternative measure to arrest. The request was motivated by the fact that Lucano is no longer mayor, nor was he re-elected to the municipal council and cannot, therefore, reiterate the crimes that are contested.