The investigating judge of the Taranto court Vilma Gilli has indicted 44 natural persons and three companies for the “Ambiente Svenduto” inquiry into the alleged environmental disaster caused by Ilva. Two other defendants were sentenced with summary procedure.
Among the defendants there is also the former president of the Puglia Region Nichi Vendola charged with aggravated bribery. According to the indictment, Vendola exerted pressure on the general director of Arpa Puglia (Regional Environmental Protection Agency), Giorgio Assennato (in turn judged for personal aiding and abetting), to have the Agency's position "softened" with regard to the harmful emissions produced by Ilva.
In this way, the prosecutor argues, Vendola would have allowed the company to continue producing without reducing polluting emissions, as instead suggested by ARPA in a note dated 21 June 2010 drawn up after a sampling which had detected peaks of benzoapyrene. Also according to the indictment, Vendola allegedly "threatened" Assennato's non-reconfirmationwhose mandate expired in February 2011.
The disputed facts are included in the period from 22 June 2010 to 28 March 2011. The aggravated extortion is contested in Vendola in competition with the former head of institutional relations of Ilva Girolamo Archinà, the former vice president of Riva Fire, Fabio Riva, the former director of the iron and steel plant in Taranto Luigi Capogrosso and the lawyer of the Ilva Francesco Perli. Among those acquitted, the former Councilor for the Environment and magistrate Lorenzo Nicastro.
