After nearly ten years, the legal case against Abbanoa's top management by Mauro Pili, a former parliamentarian, former regional president, and now a journalist, has been brought to a close in the Supreme Court of Cassation. The Supreme Court has overturned without remand the ruling of the Cagliari Court of Appeal that had upheld the defamation conviction against the top management of the sole water company: the act does not constitute a crime.
No new trial, therefore: the convictions handed down in the first and second instance trials are definitively overturned. At the heart of the case is Pili's battle against the compensation payments, amounting to over €106 million , requested by Abbanoa from Sardinian users, and the class action lawsuit filed by more than 25,000 people.
Pili's certainly harsh words were deemed defamatory by the judges, resulting in a €15,000 settlement for then-sole director Alessandro Ramazzotti. His defense attorneys, Benedetto Ballero and Maurizio Scarparo, invoked the right to criticize, including political criticism. "A civic, moral, and ethical battle," Pili said . The reasons for the lawsuit are pending.