Viareggio massacre: twelve years ago 32 victims in the stake

2021-09-06T17:02:43.466Z

The Viareggio railway massacre, which cost the lives of 32 people, dates back to 29 June 2009. THE NIGHT OF THE TRAGEDY - At 11.48 pm that day a freight train departing from Trecate, in Piedmont, and headed for Gricignano, in Campania, derailed shortly after passing the Viareggio railway station. One of the tanks carrying LPG overturns on its side and gas escapes from a large hole. A few minutes later, a violent explosion: the area of ​​the city most affected is that of Via Ponchielli, almost completely razed to the ground. 32 died but many died in the days following the disaster due to the burns reported. INVESTIGATIONS - The prosecutor of Lucca opens an investigation to verify the causes of the derailment and ascertain any responsibility. Four years later,in July 2013, the gup of Lucca, Alessandro Dal Torrione, indicted 33 defendants, individuals and legal entities. Among these, Mauro Moretti, former CEO of FS and RFI, Michele Mario Elia, former CEO of RFI, and Vincenzo Soprano, former CEO of Trenitalia. THE FIRST DEGREE PROCESS - The hearing opens in November 2013 in the Lucca fairgrounds, transformed for the occasion into a courtroom. The most serious charges are those of culpable railway disaster, multiple manslaughter, involuntary fire and violation of safety regulations. After three years of hearings, in September 2016 the prosecutors received requests for sentencing: 16 years of imprisonment for Mauro Moretti, 15 years for Elia. As regards the companies involved,the prosecutors are asking for substantial compensation from Ferrovie dello Stato, Trenitalia, FS Logistics, Gatx Rail Austria (the company that owns the wagon that derailed and caught fire) and from the Jugenthal workshops in Hanover (where maintenance of the wagon axle was carried out ). On January 31, 2017, the first instance sentence: over twenty out of 33 defendants who are convicted. Seven years to Moretti, 7 and a half years to Elia and Soprano. Convictions also for the executives of the Austrian and German companies involved in the proceedings. THE APPEAL IN FLORENCE - Almost two years later, on November 13, 2018, the appeal process begins in Florence, over which the 'specter' of prescription hangs: on February 11, 2019 the prosecution concludes its indictment,asking for a sentence of 15 years and 6 months for Moretti - who announces to renounce the prescription -, to 14 and a half years for Elia and 7 and a half years for Soprano. The conviction of foreign companies has also been requested, albeit with a revision of the penalties linked to some prescribed crimes. On June 20, the Court of Appeal of Florence issued its sentence: the 7-year sentence imposed in the first instance on Moretti was confirmed, 6 years on Elia and Soprano, sentences for foreign defendants, acquittal for some RFI executives. THE WORD TO THE CASSATION - On 2 December 2020, in full Covid emergency, the trial on the Viareggio massacre comes to the scrutiny of the Supreme Court: closed-door hearings, precisely to ensure compliance with the measures implemented to deal with the pandemic,family members in connection from Viareggio with their lawyers to get news in real time on what is happening at the 'Palazzaccio'. The deputy pg Pasquale Fimiani, at the end of his indictment, asks for a new trial for Moretti and 3 other defendants (Francesco Favo, former RFI safety certification manager, sentenced on appeal to 4 years; former RFI managers Giovanni Costa and Giorgio De Marco, acquitted on appeal) requesting the annulment with postponement of the second degree sentence for these only 4 positions. As for the other appeals, however, the pg asks for their rejection, and, therefore, the confirmation of the convictions. THE JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT - On the evening of January 8, 2021, the sentence of the Supreme Court arrives, which embitters the families of the victims and satisfies the defenders of the main defendants, theformer CEO of Fs and Rfi Mauro Moretti and Michele Mario Elia, former CEO of Rfi: the Supreme Court declares the crimes of manslaughter prescribed and orders an appeal-bis on the railway disaster. If for Elia (sentenced on appeal to 6 years) and Moretti (for whom the second instance judges had confirmed the sentence to 7 years) the Court of Appeal of Florence, in the postponement, will have to return to assess the merits of profiles of guilt, for other positions - including that of the former CEO of Trenitalia Vincenzo Soprano (sentenced on appeal to 6 years) and some foreign defendants - the new trial will only concern the redetermination of the sentence, following the prescription of the manslaughter, consequent to the exclusion - sanctioned by the Court - of the aggravating circumstance of the violation of the rules on safety in the workplace."The decision taken by the Court confirmed, in the first place, the existence of the crime of multiple manslaughter. This crime, with the exception of the accused who had renounced the limitation period, was declared prescribed as the aggravating circumstance excluded of the violation of the prevention rules in the workplace ", the Supreme Court will explain with a note a few hours after the reading of the device, and from which it is clear that the prescription of the crime does not concern the position of Moretti, who, in the second judgment degree, he had given up. Acquitted "because the fact does not exist" the companies Gatx Rail Austria GmbH, Gatx Rail Germany GmbH, Jungenthal Waggon GmbH, Trenitalia, Mercitalia Rail and Rfi, in relation to the offense envisaged byarticle 25-septies of the legislative decree 231/2001 on the rules on the administrative liability of legal persons. "We are very satisfied", comments the lawyer Carla Manduchi, of the Stile law firm, defender of Rfi, while according to Moretti's defender, Professor Franco Coppi, today's verdict "radically affects the ruling of appeal: in the face of the catastrophe that that sentence represented, it seems to me that the Supreme Court has put many things back in place ". On the other hand, the words of Marco Piagentini, president of the association 'The world I would like', made up of the families of the victims, are harsh: "Today the whole country has lost. which is'the work done to date and the search for truth and justice ".