"The fact is not true." The trial stemming from the Geo&Geo investigation into the alleged looting of assets belonging to Igea, the Sardinia Region's in-house company established to secure, reclaim, and restore the environment of the abandoned mining areas of Sulcis Iglesiente, concluded with the full acquittal of all defendants.

Yesterday morning, the judges of the First Criminal Section of the Court of Cagliari dropped the embezzlement charges against the 23 defendants who, in the preliminary hearing, had not chosen alternative procedures.

The investigation

At the end of the investigation, some people even ended up in prison, such as UIL trade unionist Marco Tuveri, while Giovanni Battista “Bista” Zurru was placed under house arrest and his secretary Daniela Tidu was ordered to remain at home.

At the preliminary hearing, many had decided to plead guilty or opt for a summary trial, with the judges closing the case with numerous convictions. The fraud allegations, however, were subsequently declared statute-barred. Those involved in the investigation, including some of the most well-known, had instead chosen to defend themselves at trial against all charges, determined to prove their innocence. Yesterday morning, they were all acquitted of the embezzlement charges with the broadest possible terms. The panel presided over by Judge Lucia Perra granted the requests of Public Prosecutor Nicola Giua Marassi, who, at the beginning of his closing argument, had announced his intention to seek acquittal for all the defendants remaining in the trial. None of them had allegedly looted valuable assets from the regional company, also because there was no evidence that the material the Prosecutor's Office believed had been stolen actually had any real value (in several cases, the assets were no longer in use and had been discarded for some time).

The accusations of embezzlement

The investigation, launched in 2013, concluded with charges of embezzlement, interference with the freedom of auctions, violation of procurement regulations, aggravated fraud, and vote-buying. In total, around seventy people were investigated, including prominent politicians such as Giorgio Oppi (for vote-buying, later declared statute-barred), who died before the trial was concluded.

At the center of the investigation were Tuveri and Zurru, who were fully acquitted yesterday. Charges were therefore dropped for Giovanni Battista Zurru, Marco Tuveri, Daniela Tidu, Marco Zanda, Agostino Tolu, Attilio Usai, Giampaolo Delrio, Maurizio Piras, Elena Marta Zambianchi, Marino Vargiu, Tatiana Putzolu, Giuseppe Farci, Enrico Oppi, Antonio Tuveri, Valentino Tuveri, Giovanni Scalas, Mattia Tuveri, Marlena Tuveri, Agostino Musino, Germano Massimo Sechi, Mauro Murtinu, Giampaolo Cugurra, and Antonio Toscano. Defending the defendants throughout the ten-year investigation and trial were lawyers Agostinangelo Marras, Gianluca and Marco Aste, Massimo and Roberto Delogu, Aldo Luchi, Andrea Pogliani, Davide Tomba, Alessandro Corrias, Riccardo Schiró, Francesco Atzori, Simone Saiu, Marco Spanu, Valeria Cau, Simona Spada, Annalisa Mocci, Alberto Pani, and Marco Defenu. Igea, along with Anna Maria Busia, was the injured party.

Francesco Pinna

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