Posted on January 19, 2017
A new leaf in the book of the legal battle as the Turin Prosecution appeals the decision of the Investigating magistrate of Turin in the Court of Cassation. It is a battle which AFEVA has been fighting for many, too many years in a quest for justice.
As an association we agree with this step, given why it is being pursued and its underlying motivations. The impact of the verdict – the statute of limitations and the allocation of the trials in several courts, too many obvious mistakes for the prosecution to ignore it and resign.
We remember the last painful verdict of the Court of Cassation, and now, a few years later one might have doubts about the possibilities of the appeal being successful. However, legitimate misgivings have to be addressed in a precise and unwavering manner.
First of all, this time the verdict of the Cassation will not determine the outcome of the trial as it then did given the type and the stage of the trial. In other words, the Court of Cassation can only rule on which is the most appropriate way to go about the trial: whether it should be the one the prosecution and the plaintiffs demand, whereby Schmidheiny should be tried for murder (voluntary manslaughter), or whether the investigating magistrate’s position, manslaughter, should be maintained.
If the Court of Cassation were to rule against the Prosecution’s appeal, the trial will follow the Investigating Magistrate’s approach: four trials in four courts (which would have the positive effect of a swifter and simpler case). If the Supreme Court were to rule in favour of the Prosecution and the count of murder (voluntary manslaughter) this would not be the end of it and we would be back with a new Investigating magistrate who would have to rule.
AFEVA will use this time with its lawyers to study the best ways to defend and protect the victims and their relatives, in a reasonable time frame.
The AFeVA Steering Committee