Graziano Mesina returns, via videoconference from the Nuorese prison of Badu 'e Carros, before a court, this time in the courtroom of the Court of Appeal of Sassari, in a trial that sees him accused of extortion and usury together with the former director of a branch of Banco di Sardegna, Pierluigi Meloni.
Yesterday the Attorney General, Roberta Pischedda, asked the Court presided over by Judge Salvatore Marinaro, as reported by the press agencies, to confirm the first instance sentence for both defendants: six years and eight months in prison for Mesina and five years for Melons.
The alleged victim of the loan considered "usurious" by the prosecution is the Sassari entrepreneur Marco Milia.
Milia, in 2011, had turned to Meloni for a loan of 40 thousand euros, but Graziano Mesina himself would have acted as an intermediary in the affair.
According to the investigators, Meloni, to obtain the sum, would have turned to the former red primrose, who instead of 40 thousand euros would have asked for 50 thousand back. According to the indictment, the two threatened Milia to accept the deal and hand over the money.
The Sassari reports of the former red primrose had been reconstructed through thousands of pages relating to another investigation by the Carabinieri of the Nuoro Provincial Command.
Yesterday the lawyers of Mesina, Maria Luisa Vernier and Beatrice Goddi, and Agostinangelo Marras who defends Meloni, asked for the acquittal of the accused. The two lawyers reiterated what Mesina said: "Never granted loans with a loan, never took a penny more than I had given".
According to Agostinangelo Marras "if there was a loan, no threats were made to Milia to repay it. There is not a single piece of evidence that proves that the sum repaid by the entrepreneur was 50 thousand euros".
The trial was adjourned to May 26 for the sentence.
(Unioneonline / vl)