Acquitted after almost 15 years of the murder charge .
The sentence that definitively exonerated Lucio Filipeddu , a Gallura entrepreneur who owned a petrol station in Arzachena and other businesses, was issued by the Court of Appeal of Cagliari.
The man was accused of causing the death of a 25-year-old - Franco Salvatore Muggiolu - who he had caught stealing from his service station.
The facts date back to 2009 : Filipeddu, after discovering the young man wearing a balaclava and a crowbar, chased him behind the wheel of his Fiorino. The young man, who was fleeing on foot, however, fell and hit his head, losing his life.
First Filippeddu ended up on trial for manslaughter (it was assumed that he had run over Muggiolu) and he was acquitted. Then, after a series of other postponed sentences, he was sentenced to ten months for manslaughter . Now the new appeal sentence, which decreed his as definitive solution .
“I am happy that this matter has come to an end,” he commented after the Filippeddu verdict. " I have always been convinced that I had no responsibility - he added - so much so that if the statute of limitations had intervened I would have been ready to challenge it to move forward with the proceedings and obtain justice on the merits".
