The investigators of the Special Investigation Unit of the Port Authority - Coast Guard went to pick him up yesterday morning with the judge's order in hand. For the first lieutenant Pierpaolo Spagnolo, 57 years old, former deputy commander of the Port Authority of Carloforte, the investigating judge of the Court of Cagliari, Luca Melis, ordered precautionary custody in prison as part of the investigation for corruption on nautical licenses which - according to the investigators - would have been released to dozens of people without taking the exam, but in exchange for favours, gifts and bribes.
With him, five other suspects ended up under house arrest, while for the same number the obligation to sign was triggered. According to deputy prosecutor Andrea Vacca, dozens of people turned to Spagnolo to obtain, through bribes, a boating license.
The precautionary order
The licenses of almost two hundred people spread across the island ended up in the investigations, but in the end the Prosecutor's Office formulated charges against 84 people. In all, 136 charges are hypothesized, for various reasons, among which corruption, aggravated forgery and even the attack on transport safety stand out. For the Coast Guard investigators - who collaborated with colleagues from the Capitanerie of Cagliari and Olbia - having distributed the nautical license to those who had not taken the exam potentially meant a big risk for navigation. Only 36 of the 84 suspects appear in the precautionary order signed by Judge Melis and executed yesterday: this is because 48 have already asked for a plea agreement in the investigation and have been removed. These are important names in Sulcis and island entrepreneurship, but also professionals, public executives, managers and traders. As mentioned, Pierpaolo Spagnolo is in prison, while the judge ordered house arrest for Palmerio Bodano resident in Villacidro, Nicola Peddio from Quartu, Giorgio Cicu from Iglesias, Domenico Bisesti from Sestu and Carlo Puggioni resident in Calasetta. However, the obligation to sign in the barracks for the public manager Roberto Raimondi (already investigated for corruption in the affair of the Region's appointments: he would have obtained a position from the former governor Christian Solinas in exchange for the promise of an honorary degree in an Albanian university and teaching in a private university), as well as for Luca Bruzzese from Quartu, Vittorio Velotto from Olbia, Massimo Balia from Carbonia but resident in Quartu and Giuseppe Cirronis from Villacidro.
The suspects
With 48 positions removed, many of which because they asked for a plea deal, the names of 36 people appear in the 186 pages of the measure who, according to the accusation, would have obtained the license from the former commander of the Carloforte Captaincy, now retired. They are Paolo Pellegrini from Iglesias, Pierpaolo Cui from Iglesias, Antonio Stefano Deriu from Portoscuso, Paolo Sanna from Sestu, Efisio Putzolu from Iglesias, Andrea Sovrano from Quartu, Aldo Foti from Portoscuso, Simone Pintus from Cagliari, Luigi Lai from Carbonia, Giuseppe Dedoni of Cagliari, Fabio Espis of Sarroch, Mario Fabio Puddu of Iglesias, Gianluca Argiolas of Cagliari, Ivan Mura of Iglesias, Efisio Ibba of Quartu, Adriano Atzori of Domus de Maria, Ferruccio Secci of Carbonia, Roberto Padricelli of Carbonia, Marco Romano of Carbonia, Andrea Orgiu of Isili, Efisio Pisu of Maracalagonis, Fausto Pisano of Sestu, Andrea Cui of Iglesias, Gianluca Serra of Portoscuso and Umberto Olla of Iglesias.
The story
The news of the scandal broke out about a year and a half ago, after the discovery that dozens of nautical licenses were "given away" in the Carloforte Harbor Office without there being evidence of having passed the exam. In reality, the deputy prosecutor Andrea Vacca, with a task force formed by the soldiers of the Special Investigation Unit of the Port Authority Corps arriving from Rome, assisted by the soldiers of the Cagliari and Olbia harbor offices, have been working on the investigation for almost three years now. Right from the start, the Spanish lieutenant who had been regent of the Captaincy of Carloforte was at the center of the investigation. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the method for "giving away" nautical licenses would have been tested: in exchange for an imprecise sum of money or other benefits, the petty officer would have falsified the report certifying participation in the exam. But since each license is signed by the highest ranking officer of the Captaincy, to prevent the commander from noticing something, fake reports of loss were presented to the police and carabinieri. Hence the granting of a duplicate.
The defenses
The lawyer Marco Aste defends Pierpaolo Spagnolo, but numerous lawyers of the suspects have already secretly reached agreements with the prosecutor to appear before the judge and negotiate a plea deal. Among the defenders stand out the lawyers Gianluca Aste, Carlo Monaldi, Salvatore Angelo Porru, Franco Pilia, Simone Pinna, Matteo Solinas, Anna Maria Sechi, Pierluigi Concas, Alberto Marcialis, Carlo Amat, Corrado Murru, Massimiliano Murgia, Annarella Gioi, Simone Saiu, Alberto Pani, Valerio Fundarò, Roberto Peara, Salvatore Cincotti, Michele Stivaletta, Giorgia Meli, Vincenzo Frenda, Antonio Fadda, Christian Rabissoni, Giuseppe Dideri, Patrizia Orrù, Roberto Nati, Pierandrea Setzu and Simona Spada . «As will be demonstrated during the proceedings - says the lawyer Roberto Nati, defender of Massimo Balia, who announces an application to the Court of Review against the order - the accusations are devoid of any foundation and my client has never received any false license relating to unrestricted navigation from the coast. Furthermore, it is not clear what the precautionary needs would be. The dispute refers to events that occurred in 2019 and the proceedings were started, at least, in 2022. The repetition of the crime, mentioned in the order, would be physically impossible, not only because the soldier involved is no longer on duty, but also because the use of the hypothetical, and never found, false driving license appears to be a mere hypothesis of style. Massimo Balia, in fact, holds a legitimate nautical license within 12 miles which authorizes him to use his vessel, which is less than 10 meters in size and unsuitable for navigation on the high seas. The defense will ask the prosecutor to request the dismissal of the proceedings."
Francesco Pinna
