No one had noticed. Five years after the referral to trial, when the trial seemed destined to end to give the floor to the public prosecutor for the discussion, the trial of the alleged gang accused of having facilitated illegal immigration, in exchange for money, will have to start all over again. Reason? The crimes alleged by the prosecution would be the responsibility of the Court of Assizes and not of the collegiate tribunal that was judging the 13 defendants. Yesterday morning, the judges accepted the defense's objection, returning the documents to the prosecutor Enrico Lussu who will have to ask again for the preliminary hearing to be set. In short: everything to be done again.
The incompetence
In technical jargon it is called “exception of incompetence” and is requested when it is assumed that a judge is not competent to deal with a certain case. This may concern incompetence by subject matter (the crime does not fall within his field of action), by territory (it did not occur in his district) or by connection (the case is connected to another crime within the jurisdiction of another judge).
And in this case, since the prosecutor contests the aiding and abetting of illegal immigration with also criminal association, the jurisdiction is of the Court of Assizes and not of the panel that was judging. The lawyers Sebastiano Desogus, Valeria Cau, Massimo Puddu, Fabio Pili, Massimo Atzeni, Hiram Cossu and Fabio Cannas realized this and formalized the exception.
The decision
After leaving the council chamber, the panel presided over by Judge Lucia Perra (who inherited the proceedings after the preliminary investigation was concluded) accepted the defense's request, declaring the nullity of the decree ordering the trial and returning the file to the public prosecutor so that he can proceed with a new request for a preliminary hearing. Born from a complaint for an act of vandalism, the investigation then resulted in several people being accused, in various capacities, of criminal association, aiding illegal immigration, forgery of documents, attempted extortion and damage.
