The sixth section of the Court of Cassation decided to annul with a postponement the sentence with which Silvana Saguto, former president of the Preventive Measures section of the court, was sentenced on appeal to 8 years and 10 months in prison. Therefore, for now the possibility of going to prison fades for her. Numerous accusations were unsuccessful before the Supreme Court, which ordered a new appeal process for the former judge, also with the aim of re-determining her sentence, and thus accepting the arguments of the lawyer who defended her from the beginning, Ninni. Queen.
The same fate – that is, a new appeal process – also for other defendants, such as his right-hand man, the lawyer Gaetano Cappellano Seminara (defended by the lawyer Sergio Mónaco), who over the years had been entrusted with dozens of judicial administrations. already sentenced to 7 years and 7 months, for the husband of the former magistrate, Lorenzo Caramma (6 years and 2 months), for the judicial administrator Roberto Santangelo (4 years and 2 months), Carmelo Provenzano, professor at the Kore University of Enna (3 years) and by Rosolino Nasca, lieutenant colonel of the financial police serving in Dia (2 years and 8 months).
However, the sentence of one year and four months imposed on Walter Virga, the accused by whom the entire investigation began, was completely annulled. Same decision for the son of the former judge, Emanuele Caramma (he was 4 months old), for Roberto Di Maria, dean of the Faculty of Law of Enna (one year and 10 months), for María Ingrao, wife of Provenzano, and for Calogera Manta , the sister-in-law (both already sentenced to 2 years and 8 months). However, the three-year sentence imposed on the former prefect of Palermo, Francesca Cannizzo, becomes final – and is the only case – even if the crime was reclassified.
The judges of the sixth section of the Supreme Court, with a particularly complex device, have significantly revised the appeal ruling, issued on July 20 last year, in which the Court of Caltanissetta he had spoken of a “distorted use” of power by the former magistrate, “driven by a spasmodic desire to guarantee a high standard of living for herself and her family”, and also recognized the existence of “a corrupt pact”, underlining how ” The only interests pursued” by Saguto were “selfish”, resulting in “multiple illicit behaviors aimed at exchanging benefits.”
The reasons for the appeal ruling.
That storm that came from Caltanissetta: how the investigation was born
The story of Silvana Saguto and the other defendants emerged in the fall of 2015, when not a commotion came from the Caltanissetta Prosecutor’s Office, but a storm that overwhelmed the former magistrate, who until then had been a concrete example of the fight against mafia. , having worked for years to take away from the bosses what is actually most precious to them: their money, their homes, their companies. And it all started with some wiretapping, initially carried out again by the Nisseni prosecutors, but on something that apparently seemed like an isolated case, that is, the alleged irregularities in the management of the assets seized from the Rappa family, in particular the ” Nuova Sport Car spa”, which was entrusted to Walter Virga, young son of the former president of the third section of the Palermo court, Tommaso, and who has now been completely exonerated.
Saguto defends himself: “Falcone and Borsellino are my teachers”
The bugs in the judge’s office
The documents, for reasons of jurisdiction, were transferred to Palermo, but soon returned to Caltanissetta because in the Rappa case the then president of the Preventive Measures section of the court and Tommaso Virga (later acquitted in an extract of the trial) They were responsible. Thus, not only the phones of Virga Sr. and Saguto were monitored, but also those of her husband, the engineer Lorenzo Caramma, the lawyer Gaetano Cappellano Seminara – who worked with the judge for years – and Carmelo Provenzano, a researcher at the Kore University. from Enna. Microphones were also placed in Walter Virga’s “Prodea” law firm and, above all, in the court offices where Saguto worked. Thus, from the sole management of “Nuova Sport Car spa” a system of bribery and clienteling linked to the administration of assets confiscated from the mafia emerged that would continue for years, involving dozens of professionals.
“We are in debt”
“We have to talk, because our economic situation has reached its total limit – said Saguto then. removed from the judiciaryone of his children – it is no longer possible, they cannot make me spend 12, 13, 14 thousand euros a month, we do not have this income because we are very in debt.” There would have been friction between the different defendants, to the point that Saguto he would have been resentful precisely against the young Virga: “A child has nothing – he told Cappellano Seminara – he got what he got and this is the gratitude.”
“Up to the third level of sentencing, 8 thousand magistrates defend one”
The “boy”, however, proved to have very clear ideas: “Look, I’m telling you from experience, as the son of a magistrate – he explained in an interception – the magistrates defend each other. So, as you can see, all “These controversies (…) I tell you that even if they were not false, and they are, up to the third level of sentencing 8 thousand magistrates defend one.” In the first instance the sentences were severe and then, in the case of Saguto and Cappellano Seminara, even slightly higher on appeal.
