The preventive seizure of the four ships of the Cin-Tirrenia company has been cancelled, after almost a month. This was decided by the Court of Review of Genoa, president Massimo Cusatti. The measure had been requested by the prosecutor Walter Cotugno and ordered by judge Silvia Carpanini. "We are very satisfied with the measure of the Review, which has been able to do thoughtful justice", say the lawyers of Cin, the lawyers Beniamino Carnevale and Pasquale Pantano.
The preventive seizure was worth 64 million euros, with the ferries engaged on the Genoa-Porto Torres route . According to the prosecution, the company's ships did not meet the requirements set by international environmental regulations: some components of the main engines and diesel generators were tampered with or replaced with non-original spare parts and, therefore, did not comply with the regulations, which were circumvented with false certifications reported in the registers or through the counterfeiting of authentication signs of competence of the public authorities. Also according to the prosecution, the company's managers gave tickets to officers and admirals of the Port Authority so that they would turn a blind eye.
For this strand, the prosecution has requested 13 measures: 2 house arrests and 11 interdictions. The judge will decide in the next few days. According to investigators, the companies of the Onorato group have given away, in six years, almost 34,000 tickets. Evidence, for the Prosecutor, of an "impressive corruption mechanism", involving "strategic" officials for the companies . For the investigators, many of the tickets given away were "unequivocally correlated" to preferential treatment. Among the recipients of the gifts were members of the Port Authorities and law enforcement agencies, two magistrates and public officials.
The Italian shipping company thanked the Review Section in a note
of the Court of Genoa, for the release of the assets. The four Cin ships have therefore returned to the full availability of the company .
(Online Union)