The first degree sentence against Francesco Provolo , former prefect of Pescara accused in the trial for the tragedy of Rigopiano , in Abruzzo, where - in 2017 - a hotel was overwhelmed by an avalanche (there were 29 victims) was overturned.
Provolo, who had been acquitted and was accused of forgery and omission of official documents, was today sentenced by the Court of Appeal of L'Aquila to one year and eight months .
The judges' decision came at the end of the deliberation session which lasted almost 5 hours.
Overall, eight convictions were imposed (compared to 5 in the first instance) and 22 acquittals were pronounced .
The judges confirmed the sentences imposed at first instance for the mayor of Farindola Ilario Lacchetta, for the managers of the Province Paolo D'Incecco and Mauro Di Blasio, for the technician Giuseppe Gatto and for the former manager of the hotel Bruno Di Tommaso .
In addition to the former prefect Provolo, Leonardo Bianco, former chief of staff of the Prefecture, and Enrico Colangeli, municipal technician of Farindola, were convicted .
«All avalanche warnings were ignored. With this ruling, prevention dies in Italy . What are we going to do?". Thus Egidio Bonifazi, father of Emanuele, a 31-year-old receptionist at the Rigopiano hotel, who died on 18 January 2017 in the Farindola facility (Pescara) overwhelmed by an avalanche.
«I felt a lot of confusion. They didn't do it justice. I am very saddened because those most responsible were not punished" added Bonifazi.
(Unioneonline/lf)