The documents of the investigation that led to the suicide in prison of Aldo Scardella, an innocent man, have disappeared from the Court of Cagliari. The case has come to the attention of the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio who, in response to a question from the deputy Roberto Giachetti, reconstructs a story that reveals more than one mess in the management of the archive documents of the building in Piazza Repubblica.
The wound reopened on November 9, 2023 when Cristiano Scardella, Aldo's brother, assisted by lawyers Silvia Marzot and Mauro Trogu, requested access to the documents from the Prosecutor's Office regarding the arrest, capture, investigations and death by suicide of his brother Aldo, which occurred in the Buoncammino prison in Cagliari on July 2, 1986. The young man had been accused of the bloody robbery at the Bevimarket: the owner, Giovanni Pisanu, was killed. A miscarriage of justice had emerged in 1996: others were convicted for that crime, with a sentence confirmed in 2002.
Cristiano Scardella wanted to get hold of the papers. A first part of the folder was viewed by the lawyer Trugu in December 2023. But when he returned the following February to acquire all the documents, here is the surprise: the file on Aldo Scardella had disappeared.
Giachetti raised the case. In recent days, Nordio's response arrived, which quotes a report by the public prosecutor:
"In the spring of 2024, the head of the criminal section of the Prosecutor's Office (the secretarial office usually responsible for taking care of viewing and issuing copies to lawyers) and Cristiano Scardella's lawyer, Mauro Trogu, informed the undersigned that the documents were no longer there. In particular, those documents had already been viewed in December 2023 by lawyer Trogu, who had reserved the right to return to complete the viewing and acquisition of the copies but, once he returned in March 2024, they had not been found."
It seems that the documents, composed of several folders, had "been temporarily left in a room on the third floor of the Prosecutor's Office, usually used as a temporary archive, at the disposal of the lawyer, pending his return. The documents of interest, relating to the investigations of the 1980s, however, had not been found. The official was not able to specify whether these documents were contained in a sixth, separate folder, or were included in one of the five remaining ones".
The searches were unsuccessful. Therefore the Prosecutor " has ordered in writing to carry out new and in-depth searches also extended to all archives and, in the event of failure to find anything, to proceed with the reconstruction of the documents, after searches also at the judicial police offices".
Meanwhile, it has emerged that "in March 2024, an external company, commissioned by the Court of Appeal, proceeded to dispose of old judicial documents following a waste. However, by mistake, the company proceeded to remove and send for destruction documents from the Public Prosecutor's Office, kept in an archive located on the ground floor of the building and used by various judicial offices. In particular, these were long-decided criminal proceedings dating back to 1996/1997. The Public Prosecutor's Office was not informed of this disposal activity - in relation to which investigations are underway".
The report underlines that, despite the temporal coincidence, Scardella's actions were in a completely different place, «therefore, a connection between the two facts must be considered at this stage merely hypothetical and would even seem to be excluded».
The disappearance of documents on the Scardella case and those that should not have been disposed of " are still the subject of in-depth investigations".
Nordio states that "in any case, it will be the responsibility of this ministry to dutifully monitor the developments of the matter and to take, if necessary, where conduct susceptible to disciplinary action should emerge, the appropriate initiatives in the exercise of the powers recognized by law".
Enrico Fresu
