The felling of the Buoncammino pine trees without authorization from the Superintendency is not considered a crime by law, while there is no charge of defacement of natural beauty. Thus, the trial for the felling of the hill's trees, which occurred in 2020, concluded before Judge Stefano Mutzu of the Cagliari Criminal Court.
The decision
The verdict was handed down yesterday morning, following a hearing that began in November 2023. The judge acquitted, with two separate sentences, official Paolo Malavasi (represented by lawyers Roberto Nati and Nicola Zoccheddu), manager Salvatore Farci (represented by lawyer Matteo Pinna), agronomist Andrea Fenu, and Giuseppe Ariete (represented by lawyer Rodolfo Meloni). The first two had been indicted as sole project managers (RUP), the third as contract execution director (DEC) of the municipal parks service, while the fourth had been indicted in his capacity as legal representative of the Santamaria e Imeria temporary consortium, which carried out the work. All four were accused of felling 10 pine trees near Viale Buoncammino, an area subject to landscape restrictions, without authorization from the Superintendency. In addition, the Prosecutor's Office had also charged them with a specific crime of defacing protected natural beauty. The judge ruled that this conduct was not a crime because there was no need to obtain ministerial approval to cut down the trees, which were considered old and unsafe, and the charge of defacement did not arise.
The debate
During the trial, which began after the defendants challenged the criminal convictions they received following the investigation, it emerged that the trees had been analyzed by botanical experts. The experts, therefore, determined that they needed to be felled because they fell into the "highest propensity to collapse" category, posing a public safety risk. For this reason, the Municipality, through a resolution, ordered their felling and replacement with younger trees of the same type. However, when the chainsaws were put into operation, protests erupted from many residents and environmentalists from the Legal Intervention Group (GRIG), who filed a complaint, which triggered the investigation. During the trial, the environmentalist association, along with its lawyer Susanna Deiana, joined the proceedings as a civil plaintiff.
The sentence
Yesterday morning, Judge Mutzu read the ruling, acquitting all defendants because the act was not classified as a landscape crime, given that the works were carried out without a landscape permit, and there was no charge of altering protected natural beauty. In 2020, following the Grig's complaint, the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit intervened, blocking the work. Now the ruling will need to be read to determine whether the Prosecutor's Office will decide to appeal. The case, in any case, had sparked considerable outcry and controversy at the time, as the pine trees on Viale Buoncammino have always been beloved by the people of Cagliari. Now the trial has established that no crime was committed when it was decided to cut down a dozen of them.
