Mimmo Lucano disqualified, appeal to the Court of Cassation and request for suspension of the appeal sentence ready

Now that, after the judgement of the Court of Appeal of Reggio Calabria, Mimmo Lucano's disqualification as mayor of Riace has become a matter of law, the ruling of the Court of Cassation is awaited. "The appeal is ready," warns lawyer Andrea Daqua, who defends Lucano with his colleague Giuliano Saitta, "as is the request for the suspension of the executive efficacy of the sentence, which will be presented after the appeal is filed.

The protagonist of a long and sensational judicial affair over the management of migrant flows for which, as part of the Xenia trial, he was sentenced in first instance to 13 years and two months by the Court of Locri and, in fact, acquitted in appeal with a residual sentence of 18 months (with suspended sentence) for forgery in a public deed, regarding a municipal decision, Lucano returned as mayor of Riace in June 2024, after having been elected, almost simultaneously, also MEP for Avs.

From the outset, the Prefecture of Reggio Calabria had requested that his ineligibility under the Severino law be ascertained, proceeding through the courts, in view of the 'inertia of the municipal council for the fulfilment of its duties', clearly in support of the mayor.

"According to legal logic, without the criminal court having ascertained the abuse of powers or the violation of the duties of a public official, which are requirements for disqualification," continues Daqua, who has been defending Lucano since 2018, "and without the application of the accessory sanction of disqualification from public office expressly provided for by Article 31 of the penal code, precisely for the hypothesis in which the act was committed with abuse of power, the Severino law cannot be applied to Lucano's case. As instead sustained by the electoral judge called to rule on the Riace mayor's incandidability.

The last word will be that of the Supreme Court, which will decide the matter, analysing the criminal judge's assessments, those that excluded the abuse of power and therefore the requirements for Mimmo Lucano's disqualification as mayor of Riace, contrary to what the electoral judge declared. 'It is a unique situation in the Italia legal panorama,' Daqua concludes, 'an abnormal issue that could also present profiles of constitutional illegitimacy'.