The request to close the Ustica case has been withdrawn following France’s willingness to cooperate. Lo Voi: “A new line of inquiry is opening up”

The French authorities’ willingness to cooperate “opens up a new avenue and new prospects” for the investigation into the Ustica massacre. This was stated by the Rome Public Prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, who asked the investigating judge to revoke the request to dismiss the case in light of the French authorities’ willingness to transfer to Italy all documentation relating to the disaster that occurred on the evening of 27 June 1980, when the Itavia DC-9 crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea, causing the deaths of 81 people. “The French authorities have indicated their willingness to resume the cooperation that had taken place in previous years,” said Lo Voi at the hearing scheduled for this morning before investigating judge Livio Sabatini. “For the Public Prosecutor’s Office, this represents a form of reactivation that opens up a new line of inquiry with fresh prospects. All of this leads us to withdraw the request to dismiss the case." This request concerned two cases, which had been merged, opened in 2008 and 2022 by prosecutors at Piazzale Clodio, both against persons unknown.

The documents made available cover a long period, stretching back to the early 1990s, and are said to include those from the French Ministry of Defence as well as computer files. In the note from the French Embassy sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and forwarded via the Prime Minister’s Office to the Ministry of Justice and, in turn, to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome, the French Embassy also states its willingness to comply with any further requests should they arise. 

Today’s decision comes after decades of unanswered requests and unfulfilled letters rogatory dating back to the 1990s. The investigating office at Piazzale Clodio will today produce a substantial body of documentation covering the period from 1981 to 1994, drawing also on old requests for international judicial cooperation. Among the materials to be provided to the Roman public prosecutors are the radar tracks from the hours during which the tragedy occurred, the routes of the aircraft carriers Clemenceau and Foch, the flight plans of military aircraft bound for Libyan territory, and the controversial track known as LL004, intercepted at the time by the Poggio Ballone station near the Sardinian military airbase at Solenzara.