Appeal by the civil parties against the acquittal sentence against the three former Syndial executives, pronounced by the preliminary hearing judge Giovanni Paolo Piana, at the end of the preliminary hearing at the Court of Sassari, on 7 July 2023.
The three former Eni managers ended up on trial on charges of environmental disaster and management of an illegal hazardous waste dump, called "Palte Fosfatiche", a compromised site in the industrial area of Porto Torres. The judge's decision not to prosecute was taken for reasons of limitation of the second charge, the only one still standing, which established that with the omission of acts aimed at spreading pollution, the accused would have committed an act aimed at causing an environmental disaster, resulting in danger to public safety.
Judge Piana had accepted the request for non-proceeding presented by the defense lawyers: Piero Arru, Maurizio Bazzoli, Syndial's civil party lawyer, Fulvio Simoni and Riccardo Olivo. The appeal was proposed not only by the environmentalist associations but also by the State Attorney's Office, represented by the lawyer Gian Domenico Tenaglia, for the Ministry of the Environment, by the lawyer Fabrizio Bionda for the Municipality of Porto Torres, by the lawyer Alessandra Putzu for the Sardinia Region. On 30 June 2015 in the former Syndial petrochemical plant in Porto Torres, the Noe carabinieri had discovered an area of approximately four hectares where phosphate pallets are stored and where there was a concentration of natural radionuclides higher than the natural background as regards the 'Uranium 238 and 235 and Thorium 232.