Environmental disaster at the Teulada range, all Chiefs of Staff acquitted on trial
Twice the prosecutor had asked for it to be dismissed, with the anti-militarist garrison outside the courtThe four generals accused of the pollution in Teulada were acquitted.
All former Chiefs of Staff had ended up under investigation with the hypothesis of an environmental disaster as part of the investigation into the effects of years of exercises in the firing range: Giuseppe Valotto, Danilo Errico, Domenico Rossi and Sandro Santroni were acquitted after the pm, for the second time, had asked the investigating judge to dismiss it. Acquittal for General Claudio Graziano, president of Fincantieri, who died in his home in Rome last June.
The Prosecutor's Office had ascertained the state of devastation of the Delta Peninsula, an area of three square kilometers where, from 2008 to 2016, 860 thousand training shots were fired, with 11,875 missiles, equal to 556 tons of war material. At the end of the investigation, prosecutor Emanuele Secci had asked for it to be dismissed, which was denied by the investigating judge who had ordered the compulsory indictment. After further investigations, the same prosecutor had considered that he did not have the elements to be able to withstand a charge in court and had once again asked the investigating judge for it to be dismissed with the same reasons.
An anti-militarist protest was underway outside the Cagliari court: «We expected it - says Elena Argiolas of the A Foras committee -. Unfortunately the State never condemns itself and those accused of environmental disaster are left unpunished. Not like us who are politically persecuted."
«We are very satisfied with a decision that does justice to those who have always served the State with total dedication and preparation», comment the defenders of the accused, through the mouth of the lawyer Guido Manca Bitti, «contributing, according to the guidelines of the institutions, to the maintenance of security and peace."
