It was the September 2019 when the investigation Last Banner hit the football championship with the arrest of 12 Juventus ultra leaders. On Monday, the investigation process, conducted by the prosecutor’s office and the Supreme Court, passed an initial scrutiny by the Supreme Court Digos of Turin. The Supreme Court has confirmed the conviction for private violence of a fan from Asti tried in the Piedmontese capital with the abbreviated trial. In 2018-19 ultra groups had managed to sanction the Juventus club, with racist chants and territorial discrimination or used the supporter strike to put pressure on the club and not lose a series of privileges including tickets which were then resold. The accused from Asti, belonging to the Drughi ultra group, is not one of the main figures in the proceedings. The accusation of private violence was brought against him: during the matches Juventus-Spal e Juventus-Inter had intimidatedly removed some fans from the section of the stadium where they wanted to sit. In the first instance, at the end of an abbreviated trial, he was given two months and 20 days of imprisonment; the sentence was later reduced on appeal.
In the main proceedings, where criminal conspiracy is suspected, the appeal ruling is expected on April 30th. At the opening of the appeal process last autumn, prosecutor Chiara Maina asked for the first degree convictions to be confirmed. The Last Banner sentence, in October 2021, had led to the sentencing of Dino Mocciola, considered the leader of the Drughi, to 4 years and 10 months, of Domenico Scarano, (died in May 2023), to 3 years and 3 months, by Salvatore Cava at 2 years and 4 months, by Sergio Genre at 2 years and 6 months, by Umberto Toia at 1 year and six months and by Giuseppe Franzo 1 year and 2 months.
In the first instance, when he had been retrained the charge of extortion with attempted extortion, for the first time in Italy the crime of criminal association with an ultras group, the Drughi, was recognized. However, Tradizione, Viking, the Bianconeri Armed Nuclei and ViaPhiladelphia 88 are also involved in the affair. To obtain tickets, which were then resold at tripled prices, and season tickets, for those who carried the banners inside the Allianz Stadium, they had gone so far as to have the company sanctioned. “Last Banner was not a simple investigation – the prosecutor recalled in court -. This is not a banal stadium incident carried out by agitated individuals, but the management of curves which is also a problem of public order management.” The first instance trial confirmed, as Maina had underlined, that “these ultras have the ability to influence the entire curve”. The investigation resulted in a series of arrests and the issuing of ten-year Daspo sentences in September 2019.
The article Ultrà Juve, first conviction in the Court of Cassation for the Last Banner trial comes from Il Fatto Quotidiano.
2024-04-15 17:17:45
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