Court of Catania ruling, the fact does not constitute a crime
(ANSA) – CATANIA, FEBRUARY 15 – The fourth criminal section of the Court of Catania acquitted, because the fact does not constitute a crime, the former president of the Sicilian Region, Raffaele Lombardo, of the charge of illegal possession of firearms.
The college has ordered the non-place to proceed due to the statute of limitations for the possession of eight cartridges. The judges also ordered the confiscation and destruction of weapons and ammunition. The prosecutor had asked for a sentence of two years and six months of imprisonment.
At the heart of the trial was the investigation, which began in April 2014, into the possession of nine collector guns purchased by Lombardo from the Viennese auction house Dorotheum, whose detention had not been reported. Initially the dispute concerned sixteen weapons.
Lombardo’s defenders, lawyers Mario Brancato and Giuseppe Grasso, supported the thesis that their administrative management had been dealt with other times by the secretariat and the escort of the then governor and that for the lot in question the failure to report was only due to an organizational mistake.
“The Court accepted our witnesses – comments the lawyer Brancato – but at the end of a process that lasted eight years. As far as we are concerned, we will present an appeal against the part of the sentence that orders the confiscation and destruction of weapons”.
(ANSA).