“We haven’t lost a day,” says chief prosecutor Francesco Cozzi. Two years and eight months after the collapse of the Morandi bridge, prosecutors Massimo Terrile and Walter Cotugno closed the investigation into the tragedy that claimed the lives of 43 people.
In the next few hours, 69 people, plus the companies Autostrade per l’Italia and Spea, will be notified of the “Acip” (notice of conclusion of the preliminary investigations). The act that precedes the requests for indictment: “If there have been any delays, they have never depended on us”, claims Cozzi.
In addition to the document that will be delivered to all suspects – the prosecutors have not filed any position for the moment – there is an impressive amount of documents available to the defense. Among these, the technical advice of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has so far remained secret. Which highlights the “unconscious dilation” of the times with respect to the decisions to be taken on safety by Aspi and Spea. In addition to the “incomplete and equivocal communications” on the reports on the health of the viaduct. Analysis partly shared by the experts of the investigating judge at the end of the two probative incidents. Just as the cause of the collapse is shared by the prosecution and the judge’s experts: the breakage of one of the stays of pile 9, the one facing south-east.
In addition to the accusations of multiple manslaughter, disaster, attack on transport safety, forgery, the complaints of the Prosecutor’s Office should also concern road murder. A crime assessed since the beginning of the investigation by the prosecutors Terrile and Cotugno, and which should now appear in black and white.
In addition to the 68 names already known, there is a new suspect, whose responsibilities only emerged in the last few months. A position, according to what filters, however marginal. Prosecutor and financiers of the First Group and of the Metropolitan Operational Unit, headed by Colonel Ivan Bixio and Lieutenant Colonel Giampaolo Lo Turco, immediately went in three directions.
First and foremost Autostrade per l’Italia, starting with the former CEO Giovanni Castellucci and the managers immediately under him, Michele Donferri Mitelli and Sergio Berti. The same managers were then arrested as part of the parallel investigation into dangerous and non-standard noise barriers.
But immediately the responsibilities of Spea emerged, the “twin” company of Aspi delegated to monitor and control the network throughout Italy. Even his former managing director, Antonino Galatà, was hit by a precautionary measure, the suspension from public offices for twelve months, and this time as part of the investigation into the rigged reports on the other viaducts.
Finally, the prosecutor also investigated some key men of the Ministry of Infrastructure. Because if it is true that, according to the prosecutors, Autostrade and Spea executives and technicians have done good and bad weather on the skin of motorists, it is equally true that the only body in charge of controlling the dealership was the ministry. That control work, however, was not done for the investigators.
If the pandemic has inevitably slowed down the investigation times – just think of the meetings between the technicians during the evidentiary incident, some postponed several times, others carried out at a distance – in recent weeks we have started running again: “Even the hearings of the same In all, the probative incident lasted only seven days, going beyond our expectations “, confides Cozzi.
From the next few hours in the “anti-Covid” tensile structure set up in the atrium of the Genoa court, the coming and going of the lawyers of the suspects will begin, who will be able to access the documents through the “brain”, the software also used by the FBI that allows indexing and connect elements (for the Prosecutor’s Office for clues) from different sources. There are 55 terabytes of computer material on record alone, which, to understand each other, correspond to over 82,000 cd-roms, or more than 7 million photos.
.