Morandi Bridge: Genoa public prosecutor asks for 18 years and 6 months for Castellucci

Sentencing the former CEO of Autostrade Giovanni Castellucci to 18 years and six months. This is the request arrived at by prosecutors Walter Cotugno and Marco Airoldi at the trial for the collapse of the Morandi bridge (14 August 2018, 43 victims). "The maximum request for the elements of gravity against him," said the prosecutors. This closes the last part of the indictment of the Genoa prosecutor's office that began in June. The former top manager did not attend the request from Opera prison where he is detained after the definitive sentence to six years for the Avellino massacre.

“La richiesta di pena per l’ingegnere Castellucci la trovo inaccettabile e mi inorridisce, è una pena spaventosa”. Così l’avvocato Guido Carlo Alleva, che con il collega Giovanni Accinni difende l’ex ad di Aspi, dopo la richiesta di condanna a 18 anni e sei mesi. “Ho sentito oggi delle espressioni che trovo inaccettabili all’interno del processo penale nelle valutazioni personali sulla personalità, in particolare del mio assistito, l’ingegnere Castellucci, in uno scenario che è comunque uno scenario, per quanto drammatico, di reati colposi, delle valutazioni che ineriscono alla personalità, alla vita privata e alla soggettività della persona, che sono valutazioni che non possono entrare nel processo penale, che vanno enormemente al di là di ciò che al giudice è richiesto giudicare”. Per quanto riguarda l’eventuale influenza che la condanna definitiva per la strage di Avellino potrebbe avere sulla decisione dei giudici di oggi, secondo la difesa “non deve influire perché è una

Yesterday, the prosecution devoted an entire hearing to the figure of the former CEO, emphasising how he had known about the viaduct's condition since 2009 but had postponed action to follow the logic of guaranteeing maximum profit for the company by reducing costs, making strategic choices that led to the disaster. An encyclopaedia of negative elements for Castellucci, all of them more serious than each other. Here we are at the highest possible level of guilt. Why did Castellucci behave like that? For profit, personal prestige, various benefits, career. Because he liked to guarantee shareholders huge dividends. The then CEO," the prosecutor reasoned, "was like Lord Voldemort, who cannot even be named. He had created such a climate that when they wrote about him they dotted the points.

After the former administrator, the prosecution will seek convictions and acquittals, due to the statute of limitations, for the other 56 defendants. The two companies Aspi and Spea (the subsidiary that was in charge of surveillance) walked out of the trial after having plea-bargained. They paid a total of EUR 29 million, compensated out-of-court almost all the relatives of the victims, and financed the construction of the new viaduct.

For the time being, the other total sentences demanded by the prosecutors range from 9 to 15 years.