One of Lucia Annibali's attackers, the lawyer and former deputy disfigured 10 years ago with acid on behalf of her ex-boyfriend, is free.
Rubin Talaban, 41, sentenced with a final sentence to 12 years' imprisonment, served 9 years in prison and was deported to Albania last April . On the other hand, accomplice Altistin Precetaj, also sentenced to 12 years, and the principal Luca Varani, who is serving a 20-year sentence, are still in prison. Talaban returned to Albania because he was implicated in an alleged drug affair. In case of return to Italy, he should serve the rest of his sentence.
Ten years ago, on April 16, 2013, together with Precetaj he threw acid in the face of Lucia Annibali, originally from Urbino, but at that time residing in Pesaro, who was returning home. It was Luca Varani who ordered the ambush: he wanted to take revenge because she had left him. Talaban was arrested 15 days after the attack in San Salvo Marina , in the province of Chieti, he was about to flee to Albania. According to the indictment, he would have agreed a fee of 30,000 euros with Varani, of which 5,000 paid immediately. At first instance he was sentenced to 14 years, then reduced to 12 on appeal.
«It's been 10 years, it's okay. It went as it should go. He had been sentenced to 12 years, he served nine here, it was known that he would be expelled », commented Annibali. Talaban wrote her a letter from prison in which he expressed his repentance: «Already at the time he was the most aware. I hope he understood how bad he did. And in any case - he underlines - it doesn't scare me. He's in Albania."
Varani is serving a final sentence of 20 years in prison for attempted murder and stalking. He too could take advantage of some legal benefits.
Annibali has rebuilt a different life in ten years: many operations on the face disfigured by acid, many public meetings to tell her story, a legislature as a deputy of the Democratic Party and the subsequent transition to Italia Viva. Today he no longer lives in Pesaro and is the ombudsman of the Tuscany Region, where he also deals with equal opportunities.
(Unioneonline/D)