Giuseppe Ciprianoone of the four recipients of the precautionary measure in prison as part of the investigation into the murder of the mayor of Pollica, Angelo Vassalloappeared this morning before the investigating judge of the Court of Salerno, Annamaria Ferraiolo, for the guarantee interrogation. The 59-year-old entrepreneur, assisted by the lawyer Giovanni Annunziataresponded to questions for over an hour and a half, firmly denying any accusation and reiterating his complete non-involvement in the facts alleged against him.
During the interrogation, Cipriano retraced his version of events, already expressed in 2018 when he was subjected to a previous interrogation. “From a more technical reading of this investigative activity by the public prosecutor, it seems clear to me that there is a problem in terms of maintaining the motive,” declared the lawyer Giovanni Annunziata, Cipriano’s defender.
The lawyer raised doubts about the solidity of the evidence linking the suspects to drug trafficking, hypothesized as the motive for the murder. “These people are associated with drug trafficking present in the area, but the link between the suspects and drug trafficking has not objectively been found, except by circumstantial evidence and presumptions”, stated the lawyer, underlining how there is no concrete evidence to support this accusation. “There is no specific verification that these people have anything to do with drug trafficking in the area, so this means that the motive is weak,” explained Annunziata.
The defender also announced that this aspect will be at the center of the defense, stating that “it will be a reason for conflict at the hearing, when the Prosecutor’s Office will have to deal with this weakness of the motive”.
On the investigation, which is still ongoing 14 years after the murder, the lawyer Annunziata declared: “It doesn’t seem to me that they have produced great results”, highlighting that much of the investigation is based on “declarative evidence, declarative which in some cases is based on subjects already declared unreliable”. “So the trial is extremely open from a defense point of view,” added the lawyer, questioning the solidity of the evidence linking Cipriano to the murder.
Finally, Cipriano reiterated his position, stating that he has always been “very clear and collaborative in explaining the reasons for his non-involvement”. The defense has announced that it will challenge the precautionary custody order before the Court of Review, with the hope that the inexistence of the charges against the entrepreneur will be recognized.
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