The former prefect of Pescara, Francesco Provolo , the former president of the Province, Antonio Di Marco and 23 other defendants were acquitted.   Sentenced to two years and eight months the mayor of Farindola Ilario Lacchetta and 4 others.

This was established by the investigating judge of the Court of the Adriatic capital Gianluca Sarandrea in the sentence on the tragedy of the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola , overwhelmed and destroyed, on 18 January 2017, by an avalanche: 29 people died including guests and employees.

The Public Prosecutor's Office had asked for 11 years and 4 months for Lachetta, the current mayor and at the time of the disaster. The charges against the then prefect Provolo, for whom a 12-year sentence had been requested, were: fraud in the criminal trial and misdirection, omission of official documents, ideological falsehood committed by the public official in public documents, death or injuries as a result of another crime, manslaughter, culpable personal injury. Manslaughter and culpable personal injury were the crimes charged against the then president of the Province of Pescara Di Marco and the mayor of Farindola Lacchetta, the latter also accused of culpable disaster.

The ruling has raised the anger of relatives of the victims. "Shame shame. Injustice is done. Assassins. Sold. You suck» , they shouted, some barely detained by the police.

"Judge, it doesn't end here," said a survivor , Giampaolo Matrone, 39, from Monterotondo, who lost his wife Valentina Cicioni, a nurse at Gemelli, in the avalanche.

(Unioneonline/D)