Justice
Eight years later •
Ponte Morandi, nella sentenza di primo grado dodici anni a Castellucci e cinque a Coletta
Forty-three people died in the collapse on 14 August 2018. The former CEO of Aspi and the former executive at Mit received sentences shorter than those sought by the prosecution, which had requested eighteen and a half years for one and ten years for the other. The grounds for the verdicts are awaited
In the centre is Paolo Lepri, president of the bench, with Ferdinando Baldini (left) and Fulvio Polidori, associate judges, before the verdict is read out (Ansa)
Giovanni Castellucci has been sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment. Mauro Coletta has been sentenced to five years. The Court of Genoa today filed the operative part of the first-instance judgement on the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, the tragedy that claimed the lives of 43 people on 14 August 2018. The judgement was read out in court by Judge Paolo Lepri, president of the panel of judges.
Castellucci, chief executive of Autostrade per l’Italia from 2005 to 2019, was the defendant facing the most severe sentence: 18 years and 6 months, sought by prosecutors Walter Cotugno and Marco Airoldi (who took over from Massimo Terrile during the trial). The judges settled on twelve years. The charges included negligent causing of a collapse and multiple counts of vehicular homicide. Castellucci is already in custody at Opera Prison in Milan for another tragedy: he is serving a six-year sentence for the collapse of the Acqualonga viaduct in Avellino in 2013.
Mauro Coletta, who at the time of the events was director of motorway concession oversight at the Ministry of Infrastructure, has been sentenced to five years. The prosecution had sought ten.
The trial, which began in July 2022, saw 57 people in the dock, including former executives and technical staff from Autostrade per l’Italia, Spea and the ministry itself. The charges, in addition to culpable collapse and vehicular homicide, include multiple counts of manslaughter, endangering transport safety, failure to perform official duties, forgery and wilful omission of safety measures in the workplace.
The first political comment came from the Minister for Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, on the sidelines of an event in Bari: “Those who have made mistakes and have 43 deaths on their conscience must pay the full price,” he said, “because profiting from a lack of maintenance has no economic or moral justification.”