The High Council of the Judiciary will also deal with the vicissitudes of the judicial offices of Verbania, where “in the course of a criminal proceeding pending at the court and in the context of which provisions on personal freedom have been made, the judge constituted in the role of investigating judge would have been replaced in the course of proceedings with provision of the president of the court ”, write the togates of the CSM, Sebastiano Ardita and Nino Di Matteo. The two magistrates sent a document to the Presidential Committee of Palazzo dei Marescialli after the controversy broke out about the investigation into the Mottarone massacre, in which 14 people died in the crash of a cable car.
The involvement of the CSM would in any case have been foreseen by the procedure since the president of the court of Verbania, Luigi Montefusco, had sent to the judicial council of Turin for the appropriate assessments the deed with which he removed the investigating judge Donatella Banci Buonamici and assigned the dossier to colleague Elena Ceriotti, who has returned after a period of absence. Banci Buonamici will have until Monday to submit their observations to the Piedmontese judicial council, which on Tuesday will address the issue and then express an opinion to be attached to the documents for the CSM.
But Ardita and Di Matteo anticipated the times: “We ask that the matter be referred to the competent committee immediately and immediately after the plenary assembly so that action is taken as quickly as possible to assess the correctness of the decision adopted and its possible impact on the principles in subject of the judge’s preconstitution “.
Just the top of the judicial council of Piedmont, the attorney general Francesco Saluzzo, intervened in the matter after being indicated by the lawyers of the Verbania criminal chamber as the maneuverer who would have influenced the president of the court in the exemption of the investigating judge. “I find it seriously offensive to hypothesize that I or the public prosecutor, one of the most correct magistrates I have ever known, have hidden ‘maneuvers’ in place”, wrote Saluzzo in a note, specifying that “the authors of these statements they will assume responsibility “. And, adds the Attorney General,” this does wrong to the president of the court who is implicitly indicated as willing to be easily influenced by another magistrate “.
Saluzzo explains instead that he sent a written note to the president of the court for information regarding the existence, scope and depth of the alleged threats or intimidation to Dr. Banci Buonamici of which president Montefusco himself had spoken. Being the sole and exclusive owner of the initiatives regarding the safety of magistrates and judicial offices, I asked to report on the point in order to put myself in a position to possibly make my requests to the prefecture “.
Against the background of the controversy, which has very technical juridical connotations, there is actually a much broader question and it is the impact it had on public opinion, but not limited to, the decision of the now ex investigating judge Banci Buonamici which did not had validated the arrest ordered by the chief prosecutor Olimpia Bossi and by the substitute Laura Carrera for the three suspects held responsible for the cable car disaster: the plant manager Luigi Nerini, the operating manager Enrico Perocchio and the head of service Gabriele Tadini. The first two had returned to freedom after four days in prison and the third, who had confessed to having deactivated the brakes with “forks”, had been placed under house arrest. The prosecutor appealed to the review court against the decision of the investigating judge but it could take a long time – a matter of a few months – to arrive at a decision that could accept or not the request to send the three to prison.
In the meantime, however, one of the lawyers had received the request for an evidentiary accident to quickly analyze both the braking system and the broken rope with a super partes expert. The prosecutor was opposed by asking for more time to register new potential perpetrators in the register of suspects, so that they could participate with their own consultants. The investigating judge Banci Buonamici was ready to file the answer when it was dismissed and the ruling of the new judge is awaited for today.
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