He spent almost a year and a half in prison and under house arrest due to mistaken identity. For this reason he is now asking the State for maxi-compensation for "unjust detention".

The protagonist of the story, reported by Corsera, is a 45-year-old from Salento, who was accused of a brutal beating that occurred in 2018 .

For the prosecutors, a "punitive expedition" against two people aggravated by a kidnapping for extortion purposes, for which the man was hit with a precautionary measure together with 5 other people and then sentenced to 11 years , before being acquitted for not having committed the crime.

This is because, it was later discovered, it was not he who had participated in the beating, but his brother, who was very similar to him.

Once he ended up in prison, the man initially decided to make use of the right not to answer, and then profess his innocence. What later exonerated him were his brother's self-declaration, the statements of the other arrested men and the testimony of the wife of one of the victims of the beating.

Now the 45-year-old has decided to return to court in Lecce, but not as an accused, but to claim compensation of 300 thousand euros.

(Unioneonline/lf)