Massive seizure at Virga in Marineo, new trial for Saguto

Last Updated: March 12, 2024

Il maxi sequestro ai Virga di Marineo, nuovo processo alla Saguto

New legal troubles for Silvana Saguto, the former president of the prevention measures department of the Palermo court who has already been sentenced to 8 years in prison, a sentence she is serving in Rebibbia, will be charged in a new trial. The accusation is false in public document. The preliminary hearing scheduled for April 18 in Caltanissetta, the judge Santi Bologna has deferred it to trial for the case involving the seizure of assets from the Virga entrepreneurs in Marineo, which bears her signature. According to the Virga family’s lawyer, Luca Inzerillo, the seizure was illegitimate. A major seizure that took place in 2015, one of the most important in Italy, which however was not decided on by a panel as required by law, but was signed only by Judge Saguto. The property was estimated at 1.6 billion euros, including concrete plants, construction companies, agricultural enterprises, gas production, restaurants, and real estate. A value that made it the highest among the seizures carried out in the history of preventive measures in Italy, but always denied by the Virga family, who claimed it did not exceed 25 million euros. The defense argues that there was not enough time to evaluate the feasibility of the seizure, as evidenced by a series of wiretaps used in the main trial where the judge herself admits just days before the seizure that she had not yet looked at the documents, thousands of pages to review.

“I didn’t have time to look at it,” Silvana Saguto said on the phone. “I’m leaving on a business trip now, I’ll be back on Sunday, and I’ll start looking at the documents on Monday.” While the charge of false in public document has been admitted, the accusation made by the Virga family’s lawyers that the seizure was carried out to distribute contracts and benefits, the mainstay of the corruption accusation in the main trial, has been rejected. The ex-magistrate has already been judged in the first trial on the same matter, so Judge Santi Bologna has applied the principle of ne bis in idem. The defense lawyers of Silvana Saguto, Ninni Reina and Sara Bartolozzi, will appeal to the “not twice for the same thing” rule. Virga, a wealthy entrepreneur from Marineo, has never been tried or convicted for mafia-related offenses. Lawyer Inzerillo has challenged the rejection of the corruption charge in the court of cassation. The assets have been returned to the family, but all are in bankruptcy.