Milan, November 13 (Adnkronos) – The Court of Cassation declared “inadmissible” the appeal filed by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office against the Court of Judicial Review’s order in mid-August canceling the house arrest, due to lack of serious evidence of corruption, of real estate developer Manfredi Catella, architect and member of the Landscape Commission of the Municipality of Milan Alessandro Scandurra, and builder Andrea Bezziccheri (the only one who ended up in prison at that time).
Part VI – which awaits the reasons for the Supreme Court’s provisions – thus confirms the Judicial Review provisions which have revoked precautionary measures in urban planning investigations.
If the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office supported the “lack, apparent and obvious illogicality of motivation” of the Review, it was the Deputy Prosecutor General at the Supreme Court Cristina Marzagalli, in her speech, who reiterated how the prosecution documents “do not demonstrate the formation, or operation of a corrupt agreement between Alessandro Scandurra and Catella as CEO of the company Coima, since it cannot be said that the payment of the invoice by Coima in favor of Scandurra was due to a corrupt agreement and was not related to professional activities actually carried out by Scandurra and accounted for”.
As for actions contrary to official duties, identified in the indictment of the former members of the Landscape Commission’s participation in the hearing of October 5, 2023, which discussed the so-called Pirellino project, “there is a lack of evidence regarding Scandurra’s decisive and fundamental contribution in the said hearing to the formation of a positive opinion of the 11-member commission, as there is no evidence of undue pressure or demands from public officials on other members”.
Finally, in his written intervention, prosecutor Marzagalli underscored how “the logical and timely examination of the procedural findings carried out by the Judicial Review Court does not allow the Supreme Court to exercise criticism, or even to make a different factual choice. In particular, the flaw of the Judicial Review order’s lack of motivation regarding the existence of any indication of serious error cannot be reviewed by the legitimacy Court”. Now the Prosecutor’s Office – prosecutors Marina Petruzzella, Paolo Filippini and Mauro Clerici, with deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano – will be able to observe the double suspension of Judicial Review and Cassation, or will be able to continue its accusatory line until a possible request for trial.
The Court of Cassation, with its second ruling on investigations related to Milan’s urban planning, “annulled” the action of disqualification of Giancarlo Tancredi, former councilor of the Municipality of Milan, former president of the Landscape Commission Giuseppe Marinoni and manager Federico Pella. The Supreme Court accepted an appeal from the defense and dropped any action against the three at the center of an investigation that led to several countermeasures last summer.
We will have to wait for the reasons to clarify whether the basis of the decision is an issue related to the need for prevention or rather a different reading of the system of accusations. This morning, with another decision, the Court of Cassation ruled on the “inadmissibility” of the Prosecutor’s appeal for real estate developer Manfredi Catella, architect and member of the Landscape Commission of the Municipality of Milan Alessandro Scandurra and builder Andrea Bezziccheri (the only one who ended up in prison at the time).
“In the 120 days (from the notification of the indictment to the hearing in the Supreme Court, ed.) eleven judges, in addition to the Attorney General himself, have gradually rooted up to the highest levels of the judiciary for our non-involvement in what we are accused of”, said Manfredi Catella, founder and CEO of Coima sgr.
This “equates to a favorable recognition of the integrity, thoroughness, professionalism and responsiveness of our organization and the entire community of Coima” he added.
“The experience we have had has intensely energized all of us, accelerating the ongoing evolutionary process to become better and achieve excellent results for all the stakeholders in which we operate. We are grateful for the support and trust that you have clearly expressed in us in the last few months, ready to start the next phase together with enthusiasm and passion” he concluded in a statement to stakeholders.
“I really want to have a dialogue with the Prosecutor’s Office and understand what can be done to get out of the problems that are causing the deadlock in Milan.” This is what Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said after the Supreme Court decision.
“The Cassation Court denies the Prosecutor’s orientation,” stressed Sala. “Unfortunately what I see is that the Prosecutor’s Office continues to move forward without much consideration of the fact that the justice system does not accept most of those lines and I regret this – he added – What is needed is to talk to each other. We have shown in recent months that we are not deaf to the calls of the Prosecutor’s Office, on the contrary we have taken initiatives such as showing goodwill and improving some of our actions. But at this time, for the good of Milan, we cannot continue with the confrontation between deaf people, we need to find a solution”.
