"It was not a mafia association"

Middle world, in the Cassation the accusation of mafia falls: only the criminal association remains. The ermines have declared the mafia association excluded in the "middle world" trial, renamed the capital Mafia, with respect to the appeal ruling that recognized article 416 bis. Many of the disputed charges against Salvatore Buzzi and Massimo Carminati also fall.

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Massimo Carminati, from the Nar to the Magliana band: who is the "king" of the Middle World
The Cassation: "It was not a mafia association"

"It was a legally somewhat forced story: to cancel without referral it means that the Cassation considered it legally unsustainable." Thus the lawyer of Massimo Carminati, Cesare Placanica, commenting on the sentence of the Cassation that canceled 416bis without reference for Salvatore Buzzi and Massimo Carminati. The Court of Cassation distinguished the associations in two without considering mafia-style.

The sixth criminal section had examined the position of 32 defendants, of whom 17 were condemned by the Rome Court of Appeal last year, in various capacities for the mafia (for association with mafia-style criminals, or with the aggravating mafia or , again, for external competition). The accusation, moved by the prosecutor of Rome, revolved around the establishment of a "new" mafia, with offshoots in the world of procurement in the capital. Last Wednesday, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Cassation had asked for the substantive validation of the appeal ruling.

THE WAIT
Even the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, and the president of the Parliamentary Commission Antimafia, Nicola Morra, are among those who have been waiting in Supreme Court the sentence on the trial Mafia Capital. Outside the assembly hall, a small crowd of lawyers and reporters gathered for the day, including some defendants and family members. At Palazzaccio, as it was for the trial, cameras were not allowed.

Today is a historic day for @Rome. We are in the Supreme Court to await the sentence on the Mafia Capital. Today a story closes that has wounded the city. We are here, #With your head held high, for all honest citizens who fight with us for legality and against malfeasance. pic.twitter.com/JRz103UcLL

– Virginia Raggi (@virginiaraggi) October 22, 2019

The judges were assembled this morning in the council chamber to decide the fate of the 32 defendants. Last year the Rome Court of Appeal overturned the first instance sentence, condemning 17 defendants for various crimes, some were also convicted for that provided for by article 416bis of the penal code, namely the mafia-type criminal association.

The sentence of the Cassation on the Middle World trial comes after three days of river hearings with the indictment of the three deputy general prosecutors Luigi Birritteri, Luigi Orsi and Mariella De Masellis, ended with the request for confirmation of the convictions of the Appeal, and the speeches of defenders.

A process that revolved around 416bis, the crime of mafia association fell in the first degree but recognized in the Appeal. The position of 32 applicants, among whom 17 convicted in various appeals for mafia crimes, is being examined by the Supreme Judges. A sentence that will come five years after the operation that with two raids, on December 2, 2014 and June 4, 2015, led to the arrest of 37 and 44 people respectively. A maxi-investigation in which the Public Prosecutor's Office, then led by Giuseppe Pignatone, claimed that in the last few years a mafia-type, "Roman" and "original character in comparison to other mafia organizations" acted in the capital, able to get their hands, with the complicity of politicians and officials, on public procurement: from reception centers for migrants to nomad camps, from green to waste.

The maxi trial opens on November 5, 2015 and ends 20 months later, on July 20, 2017, with the sentence of first instance: heavy sentences (less than 300 years in total compared to the 500 requested by the prosecution) but without recognition of 416bis, the mafia association. Forty-one sentences and five acquittals: Salvatore Buzzi is sentenced to 19 years while Massimo Carminati is sentenced to 20 years, Luca Gramazio, instead, to 11 years. Judgment that is reversed on Appeal on 11 September 2018 with the recognition of the mafia of the association for 18 of the 43 defendants. For the former terrorist of the Nar Massimo Carminati and the ras of the Roman coop the sentences in Appello are reduced. The two are sentenced respectively to 14 and a half years and to 18 years and 4 months. Now the last word is up to the judges of the Supreme Court with the specter for many of the defendants, currently free or under house arrest, even in the light of the new rules such as the "brush-cracking" law, to end up in prison if the sentence were to be confirmed even just partly.

Last updated at 20:27


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