Outside the court the banner: “Justice for Greta and Umberto”. And no surprises came from inside the classroom. The Brescia Court of Appeal confirmed the sentences for Patrick Kassen and Cristian Teismann, the two German tourists who on 19 June 2021 aboard their Riva motorboat ran over a motor boat on which they were stationary in the waters of Lake Garda at night Umberto Garzarella, 37, and Greta Nedrotti, 24, both dead.
The defendants had asked for acquittal. They did not receive even a minimal reduction in their sentences. Four years and 6 months for Patrick Kassen who was at the controls of the motorboat and 2 years and 11 months for Cristian Teismann, owner of the Riva. Just before the judges retired to their chambers in the morning, the latter had asked and obtained permission to speak in the courtroom to apologize. “What happened was a terrible tragedy and there is no turning back from this. We also have two children and the loss of a child is unforgivable. But I want you to know that Mr. Kassen and I want to ask for forgiveness. I know that you cannot accept these excuses but perhaps this will happen in the future,” he said. His lawyers, like those of his friend Patrick Kassen, had asked for the convictions to be annulled, arguing that “the events also occurred due to the illicit conduct of the goiter’s crew”.
The defense also denied that the Riva was going at four times the speed allowed and that the two tourists were drunk when they got on the speedboat. In the appeal they wrote: “It is an element probably the result of the sensational and unhealthy media conditioning which, since the hours following the accident, has surrounded the events, instilling the belief that it was an affair with chained rhymes, in which the the candor of the broken youth of the victims must necessarily find a counterpart in the arrogance, superficiality and alcohol intoxication of the two wealthy German managers launched – as per the headlines in the press – into a crazy race of death”.
The reasons for the appeal sentence will be filed in 90 days and despite the disappointment of the defendants, the satisfaction of the families of the two victims has arrived. In the courtroom there were Greta’s parents, with a bouquet of white roses as at every hearing, and Umberto’s father and sister. “It remains too light a sentence. Our sentence is for life” commented Greta’s parents. We don’t forgive, perhaps because it’s too early or perhaps because they arrived too late to apologize.”
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