The judges of the Court of Appeal of Cagliari reduced from seven to five years the sentence for aiding and abetting prostitution against Don Giovanni Usai , the former head of the Il Samaritano community of Arborea who in 2010 ended up at the center of an investigation judicial that had shaken the world of the Church but also that of voluntary work where the priest had always been a point of reference.
According to the accusation, in the community, created for the re-education of ex-prisoners, there was a prostitution ring "with the approval of Don Usai", prosecutor De Crescenzo said during the first instance trial.
In 2020 the conviction was passed , in March 2021 an appeal was lodged challenging «the conduct of the preliminary investigations, uncritically transferred to the preliminary investigation; the numerous orders of the Court which, by rejecting the defence's requests, precluded the acquisition of exculpatory evidence of the accused and the legitimate formation of the evidence - argue the defenders Anna Maria Uras and Gabriele Satta - finally the reasons for the sentence, considered lacking and contradictory."
The lawyers underline that the general prosecutor's office, through written briefs, also expressed "full agreement with the defense's arguments, noting the contradictoriness and shortcomings of the evidentiary framework of the first level of judgment and requesting the reopening of the hearing". After various postponements, the first section of the Court of Appeal of Cagliari issued the verdict.
