Cyclone Cleopatra in Olbia, the Court of Cassation rewrites the history of the disaster

The reasons for the ruling of the Court of Cassation on the Olbia flood rewrite the judicial history of the tragedy (18 November 2013, six people died in the Gallura city). The judges of the last instance establish some points which concern both the contents of the decision of the Court of Tempio (acquittal for all the accused on the charge of multiple manslaughter) and the ruling of the Court of Appeal of Sassari (conviction of the mayor of Olbia , Gianni Giovannelli and the municipal managers, Giuseppe Budroni and Antonello Zanda).

Meanwhile, the "stoats" write that the crime was already prescribed in May 2022, therefore the judges of second instance should have taken note of the extinction of the disputes. But the magistrates of the Supreme Court go further and enter into the merits of the case with regards to the aspects of civil liability.

It is established that on a civil level the responsibility lies with the mayor of Olbia, Gianni Giovannelli at the time of the events, and with the municipal administration. Because, the "stoats" explain, "none of the stringent procedures that the municipal Protection Plan, although incomplete, required to be activated were adopted (first of all the convening of the COC, as the body in which all the components of the responsible offices were concentrated from a prevention perspective) but, above all, no useful prevention and safeguard measures were adopted, even foreseen by the Plan, starting from information to the population, other than the patchy monitoring of the rivers and canals".

As regards the positions of the municipal managers, Giuseppe Budroni and Antonello Zanda, the Court of Cassation establishes that they should not have been called into question for the disaster (as the defenders, the criminal lawyers Jacopo Merlini and Pasquale Ramazzotti have always maintained). Budroni because he was not the main holder of the Civil Protection functions and had no decision-making power, which belonged to his manager. For Zanda, however, another argument applies: there is no scientific proof of the causal link between the alleged failure to clean Olbia's canals and the greater invasiveness of the flood of 18 November 2013.