Anti-mafia ban revoked, Nissena company can resume work

Last Updated: May 18, 2024

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An enterprise from Nissena can return to work thanks to the Palermo Administrative Court (Tar) which accepted the appeal filed for a request to update the interdictive informative and annulled a provision of the prefecture of Caltanissetta. The story began in 2019, following the dissolution of the municipal council of Bompensiere. The prefecture of Caltanissetta had issued an interdictive measure against a company managed by the then mayor, based on the alleged danger of mafia infiltrations due to family ties and alleged prejudicial relationships. The company suffered significant economic damage due to the preclusion of any work activity, so it turned to lawyers Girolamo Rubino and Lucia Alfieri by filing a judicial appeal before the Tar of Palermo requesting the annulment, following suspension, of the interdictive measure.

During the trial, as more than a year had passed since the adoption of the interdictive measure and due to new favorable circumstances demonstrating the company’s innocence from any criminal environment, the company submitted a request to update the interdictive measure. However, the prefecture of Caltanissetta negatively assessed the request for an update, stating that new elements had not emerged from a new investigation that would justify the adoption of a liberating measure. Against this decision, the company, with the representation of Rubino and Alfieri, appealed to the Tar reiterating the inconsistency and irrelevance of the facts that had supported the interdictive measure, as well as the emergence of circumstances that could lead to a favorable evaluation different from the previous one.

With a provisional order issued in January 2023, the Tar accepted the provisional request made by the appealing company and ordered the prefecture to re-examine the new circumstances mentioned in the update request. However, the prefecture of Caltanissetta delayed the re-examination of the new circumstances due to the pending trial. The lawyers pointed out how the prefecture’s modus operandi undermined the purpose of updating anti-mafia information, as postponing a pending trial and defining it on the previous interdictive measure should not have prevented the updating process. They also highlighted how the lack of assessment of the circumstances underlying the update request affected the prefecture’s measure, which should have been considered illegitimate for violating the procedural opposition.

With a verdict on May 13, endorsing the defense arguments of lawyers Rubino and Alfieri, the Tar accepted the appeal and, consequently, annulled the contested measure.