Udienza 14.10.2020 – second hearing in the criminal trial after the Covid-19 stop

The Bitonto bunker hall courtroom in session

__________ENGLISH ___________

On 14.10.2020 in front of the Criminal Court of Bari in Collegial composition, chaired by Dr. Guida, was held the second hearing in the criminal trial for the disaster in the Norman Atlantic fire, which occurred in international waters in December 2014 between Italy and Greece.

In order to guarantee the social distancing between the parties due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the hearing was held as always in the Bitonto bunker hall, but distributing the judges, prosecutors, defenders of the accused and civil party lawyers, in three different rooms in the building, video connected to each other, and everything was done efficiently and well organized.

Our legal team, representing a large number of ferry passengers and relatives of victims and missing persons, participated from the very early stages at the criminal proceedings, having already constituted the clients as an offended party in the investigation and in the evidentiary incident, i.e. during the long phase of the preliminary assessment carried out by the court onboard the Norman Atlantic wreck by request of Bari public prosecutor’s office, then formally constituting ourselves as a civil party at the preliminary hearing on behalf of all our clients, proposing compensation requests to the court there, by transferring the action that we had already proposed to the civil court within two years of the accident.

The preliminary hearing phase ended positively with the indictment of all the defendants, and we therefore moved on to the opening phase of the actual trial, slowed down in February last year and then suspended due to the Covid-19 epidemic which also affected all procedural and judicial activities, but finally at this hearing we resumed activities by addressing the first formal issues, which essentially concerned the preliminary objections raised by the defendants against our appearance in court and participation in the trial as civil parties, and the request for expulsion proposed by the 4 companies that we have called for damages in their quality for civil liability, in this case Visemar transport, Visemar of navigation, Visentini shipyards and, of course, the Greek carrier ANEK SA.

These requests, based on the alleged application of EC Regulation 392 and of the Athens Convention and of the short two-year forfeiture period envisaged therein, as a restriction on the criminal laws and on the normal limitation and forfeiture periods, are already been proposed in front of the Judge of the hearing preliminary, and rejected by this with a very articulated ordinance, which clarified how the scope of application of the European regulation cannot in any way entail a compression of the constitutional rights of the injured party, limiting the possibility of appear, restricted on excessively narrow and rigorous terms, as a civil party affecting the right to participate in the criminal trial, and file for compensation for all damages suffered.

The court allowed all the defendants lawyers and civil liability companies to illustrate their objections and various requests, and then gave the turn to the Public Prosecutor, who laudably supported the offended parties and argued widely in favor of their legitimate right to participate in this trial, to then allow a round of replies to the civil parties lawyers.

From our side, we insisted on the rejection of all requests proposed by the defendants’ lawyers, arguing in a synthetic but very direct way on the various specific objections raised against us, in the certainty that once again, as already happened in the civil trial and then in the preliminary stage of this criminal trial, all matters will be rejected by the court in a favorable sense for passengers.

At the end of the hearing, which was closed around 3.00 pm, the court reserved the right to decide by order at the next hearing on the issues relating to the constitutions of civil parties, postponing for the continuation to 11th of November 2020, to address the other preliminary issues that as expected will concern the exceptions of territorial jurisdiction, and those concerning the cd. bis in idem and the conflict of jurisdiction between the Italian criminal trial and the one that is taking place in Greece.

In this regard, we are also following in parallel what happens in the Greek criminal trial, and we reserve the right to deal with the issues when they will be raised by the defendants, anticipating however that we believe that the problem of the overlap between the two judgments does not exist, having also been this question addressed, and positively resolved in favor of the jurisdiction of the Italian judges, by the GIP dott. Agnino during the preliminary hearing that ended last year.

Starting from the next hearing, the real indictment process will begin, establishing a schedule that will finally give a decisive acceleration to the trial, starting with the depositions of witnesses and consultants of the public prosecution office.

______________ ITALIANO ____________

Il 14.10.2020 innanzi al tribunale penale di Bari in composizione Collegiale, presieduto dal Dott. Guida, si è celebrata la seconda udienza nel processo penale dibattimentale per il disastro nell’incendio del Norman Atlantic, avvenuto in acque internazionali nel dicembre 2014 tra Italia e Grecia.

Al fine di garantire il distanziamento sociale tra le parti per via delle restrizioni Covid-19, l’udienza si è svolta sempre nell’aula bunker di Bitonto, ma distribuendo i giudici, pubblici ministeri, difensori degli imputati ed avvocati di parte civile, in tre diverse aule dell’edificio videocollegate tra esse, e tutto si è svolto in modo efficiente e ben organizzato.

Il nostro team legale, in rappresentanza di un largo numero di passeggeri del traghetto e di familiari di vittime e dispersi, ha partecipato sin dalle primissime fasi al procedimento penale, essendoci costituiti come parte offesa già nelle indagini e nell’incidente probatorio, ossia durante la lunga fase della perizia preliminare svolta dal tribunale a bordo del relitto su richiesta dell’ufficio della Procura di Bari, costituendoci poi formalmente come parte civile alla udienza preliminare per conto di tutti i nostri assistiti, proponendo in quella sede le richieste risarcitorie al tribunale, e trasferendo in sede penale l’azione che avevamo già proposto in sede civile entro il biennio dall’incidente.

La fase della udienza preliminare si è chiusa positivamente con il rinvio a giudizio di tutti gli imputati, e siamo dunque passati nella fase di apertura del processo vero e proprio, rallentato a febbraio dell’anno scorso e poi sospeso a causa dell’epidemia Covid-19 che ha interessato anche l’attività processuale e giudiziaria, ma finalmente alla udienza di oggi abbiamo ripreso le attività affrontando le prime questioni formali, che riguardano essenzialmente le eccezioni preliminari sollevate dai difensori degli imputati nei confronti della nostra costituzione in giudizio e partecipazione al processo come parti civili, e la richiesta di estromissione proposto dalle 4 società che abbiamo chiamato a rispondere dei danni nella loro qualità di responsabili civili, nella fattispecie Visemar trasporti, Visemar di navigazione, cantieri navali Visentini e, ovviamente, il vettore greco ANEK SA. Tali richieste, fondate sulla pretesa applicazione del regolamento CE 392 e della convenzione di Atene e del termine breve di decadenza biennale ivi previsto in prevalenza sulle norme penali e sui normali termini di prescrizione e di decadenza, sono state già proposte davanti al Giudice dell’udienza preliminare, e da questo rigettate con una ordinanza molto articolata, che ha chiarito quanto l’ambito di applicazione del regolamento europeo non possa in alcun modo comportare una compressione dei diritti costituzionali della parte offesa, limitandone in un termine eccessivamente ristretto e rigoroso la possibilità di costituirsi come parte civile e il diritto di partecipare al processo penale, chiedendo in quella sede il risarcimento di tutti i danni subiti.

Il tribunale ha consentito a tutti i difensori degli imputati e delle società responsabili civili di illustrare le loro eccezioni e le varie richieste, per poi dare la parola al Pubblico Ministero, che ha lodevolmente sostenuto le parti offese e argomentato ampiamente a favore del loro legittimo diritto a partecipare a questo processo, per poi consentire un giro di repliche alle parti civili.

Da parte nostra abbiamo insistito per il rigetto di tutte richieste riproposte dalle difese degli imputati argomentando in modo sintetico, ma molto diretto, sulle varie specifiche eccezioni sollevate nei nostri confronti, nella certezza che ancora una volta, come già avvenuto in sede civile e poi nella fase preliminare di questo processo penale, tutte le questioni vengano superate dal tribunale in senso favorevole ai passeggeri.

Il tribunale al termine della udienza, che è stata chiusa verso le ore 15,00, si è riservato di decidere con ordinanza alla prossima udienza sulle questioni inerenti le costituzioni di parte civile, rinviando per il prosieguo al giorno 11 novembre 2020, per affrontare le altre questioni preliminari che si prevedono riguarderanno le eccezioni di competenza territoriale, e quelle riguardanti il cd. bis in idem ed il conflitto di giurisdizione tra processo penale italiano e quello che si sta celebrando in Grecia.

A questo proposito stiamo seguendo parallelamente anche quanto avviene nel processo penale greco, ed ci riserviamo di trattare le questioni nel momento in cui verranno eccepite dai difensori degli imputati, anticipando tuttavia che riteniamo insussistente il problema della sovrapposizione tra i due giudizi, essendo stata peraltro anche tale questione affrontata, e risolta positivamente, a favore della giurisdizione dei giudici italiani, dal GIP dott. Agnino durante l’udienza preliminare terminata l’anno scorso.

A partire dalla udienza successiva si entrerà nel vivo del processo, stabilendo un calendario che darà finalmente una decisiva accelerazione al processo, dando il via alle deposizioni di testi e consulenti della pubblica accusa.

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PLAY AUDIO

Estratto audio della udienza, replica alle eccezioni delle difese degli imputati sulle costituzioni di parte civile

Norman Atlantic: criminal trial starts 4 years from the disaster

At exactly 4 years from the fire and shipwreck of the Norman Atlantic, here it comes the official news that the Prosecutor’s office of Bari has finally requested the indictment for the 32 suspects (30 individuals and two companies) accused of the disaster occurred off the Albanian coast in the night between 27 and 28 December 2014, which caused 31 victims, including 12 confirmed deaths and 19 bodies never found, and the serious injury of 64 of the approximately 500 passengers, all remained on board in stormy sea for two days and beyond, and that even today they have not overcome the trauma of that terrible experience.

No fire alarm was issued, no warning from the crew, and the passengers awoke at night between coulters of smoke and panic scenes. A panic which released – in many – the worst in human race. The first to abandon ship were some of the crew, dropping quickly the only usable lifeboat, with just a third of its precious capacity of persons. During the retrieve of the passengers using the baskets lowered from helicopters, others have literally attacked the rescuers, with bites and punches, just to be saved first, others refused to leave priority to women and children. Some people threw himself into the water to escape the flames, and was quickly swallowed by the waves of the icy December sea.

The news of the signing of the request for judgment had been circulating for some weeks now, but reaching the 4th anniversary, it comes an official confirmation that the prosecutors have requested the criminal trial for the legal representative of Visemar, the company that owns the ferry, Carlo Visentini, the two legal representatives of the Greek Anek Lines, charterer of the ship, the commander Argilio Giacomazzi and 26 members of the crew. After confirming the serious responsibilities and negligence that emerged in the probationary phase, the suspects are accused, for various reasons, of crimes of negligent cooperation in shipwreck, culpable homicide and multiple culpable injuries in addition to numerous violations on safety and the navigation code.

The date of the first hearing with the judge of the preliminary hearing has not yet been set, but we already know that – in order to overcome the logistical difficulties of the court of Bari – the Bitonto bunker room was again made available, in which we will stand for this part of the criminal trial.

Our team “Giustizia per Norman Atlantic” has represented so far about fifty people whose lives were devastated in various ways in the shipping incident, as passengers or as family members of victims or missing, and for many of those we lauched the multi-milion civil case running in Bari, that lately moved a further step in extending the compensation responsabilities to another company of Visemar Group.

For many others, forced by the long waiting and personal difficulties, we were asked to negotiate and close their case with a transaction, but now with the criminal trial pending we are confident that justice will soon be brought to all, even for those that couldn’t wait for a judicial and more fair compensation. New clients have recently joined, to overcome the lack of results they faced in other countries and different strategies.

But for all passengers, more and beyond an economic compensation, the first right to justice is that those who have made so many mistakes will pay with years in prison and companies will be punished with heavy punitive damages, so that this tragedy will prevent the recurrence of disasters in the world of navigation by ferries

The 2019 will now be the year of the Norman Atlantic trial, and we will ensure to make it as productive and effective as possible.

The investigation phase has been closed; Norman Atlantic approaches the criminal trial

A big step towards the criminal trial that will bring finally light and justice to the Norman Atlantic marittime disaster; great satisfaction from our legal team, not only because we are approaching the trial, but also because the Public Prosecutor has clearly listened to the complaints of our clients, adding to the accused list all the crew members who did not provide the necessary assistance to passengers. There was no loading plan for the heavy trucks, and the fire started to develop from one of the refrigerated trucks, because there were not enough power outlets and the truck drivers kept their engines running to cool the goods. A hypothesis that had already made its way in the days following the fire, as a malpractice prohibited by navigation regulations. And there were other and numerous negligence, both in the risk assessment and during the evacuation, with extreme disorganization and several crew members who left the ship way before the passengers were safe. Now the Bari prosecutor, after 3 years close investigations, adding all the crew members to the accused, mainly for our multiple reports of severe complaints from our clients for abandonment of the ship; 30 people and two companies, Visemar and Anek Lines, now face the criminale trial for the shipwreck of the Norman Atlantic ferry, which took place off the Albanian coast on the night of December 28 2014 after a fire broke out on board that cost the lives of 31 people, including some Syrian migrants, even minors, and the wounding of others 64.

All the subjects under investigation are liable for involuntary cooperation in shipwreck, culpable homicide and multiple culpable injuries. Numerous violations on security and the navigation code are also contested. To the original 18 people already in the file of the p.p’s office of Bari, Ettore Cardinali and Federico Perrone Capano, they added others 12: they are the legal representative of Visemar, society owner of the ferry, Carlo Visentini, the two legal representatives of the Greek Anek Lines, charterer of the Norman Atlantic, in addition to the commander Argilio Giacomazzi and 26 crew members. 6 of them also contend that they had left the ship avoiding to help passengers way before they were safe. A series of negligences emerged in the expert’s report of the Port Authority of Bari, above all on the assessment of the risks and on the organization of the operations of evacuation of the ship, which would have caused the shipwreck and the death of some passengers. About the causes of the shipwreck we already ran trough a probationary incident phase that lasted about two years with numerous accesses aboard the wreck, moored since February 2015 in the port of Bari, and still subjected to seizure.

The experts report about a ineffective firefighting system and unprepared crew. The fire supposedly started from a refrigerated truck running a diesel engine during navigation. Furthermore, according to the accusatory hypothesis, a plan to load the 128 TIR on board (of which about 60 refrigerators) was missing, arranged on the bridges in an approximate manner, without respecting the distance between the vehicles and the availability of elettric power, forcing hauliers to keep the engines running. And both the captain and carrier companies were full aware of this malpractice. We are also waiting to call accusation about the reason why the captain and the shipping companies have decided to prevent the intervention of the Albanian tugs to wait the arrival from Bari of the rescue, forcing the passengers to fear for their life two day on a ship adrift in flames and in the stormy sea.

In the next few weeks we will update all our clients with more detail on the following steps, about the civil case running in Bari, relations between civil and criminal proceedings, and strategies of our team in order to bring justice and compensation to all.

Two years from the Norman Atlantic tragedy – Due anni dalla tragedia Norman Atlantic

Exactly two years ago, on December the 28^th 2014, the NORMAN ATLANTIC ferry, property of the Italian shipowner VISEMAR and rented by the Greek company ANEK LINES, departed from Greece and directed to Ancona, caught fire in the middle of the night off the Albanian coast, and in short time went drifting off the Adriatic sea, in a storm of six meters waves and force 8 wind, with almost 500 people on board and overrun with cars, trucks and Tir carrying goods from Greece to Italy, especially olive oil, which would then fuel the flames for days. The origins of the fire are still under investigation, via a procedure of recording evidence that, as required by the Public Prosecutor of Bari, will have to verify not only the evolution of the shipping incident, but also, and above all, the possible Crew responsibilities in emergency management on board, and the companies ones for malfunctions, as it seemed clear from the start, that the latter turned the fire – started from the deck 4 of the ship, in a real holocaust for dozens of people, 10 dead and over 19 missing, imprisoning the rest of the survivors on the top and outside deck of the ship, drifting inexorably and internally devoured by flames, and to be recovered only by helicopter and transferred one by one. A difficult rescue operation because of adverse weather and sea conditions, and that, despite having involved over 20 merchant and naval ships of different nationalities and several rescue helicopters, lasted for more than two days – an infinite time for those caught between the grip of toxic smokes, flames, incandescent floors and the icy cold of the water jets – sprayed continuously by emergency ships. The very few who managed to take their seats on lifeboats or reach the floating boat dropped overboard, lived an experience of terror and horror, even worse than those who remained trapped on the burning ferry.

No fire alarm was issued, no warning from the crew, and the passengers awoke at night between coulters of smoke and panic scenes. A panic which released – in many – the worst in human race. The first to abandon ship were some of the crew, dropping quickly the only usable lifeboat, with just a third of its precious capacity of persons. During the retrieve of the passengers using the baskets lowered from helicopters, others have literally attacked the rescuers, with bites and punches, just to be saved first, others refused to leave priority to women and children. Some people threw himself into the water to escape the flames, and was quickly swallowed by the waves of the icy December sea. Some bodies of drowned victims were found after days, torn apart by evident shark bites. Nearly twenty people are missing, but the count of those missing is certainly more serious, considering the presence on board of many illegal immigrants.

In the tragedy – however – there were also scenes of altruism and heroism, as in the case of the Orthodox priest who generously helped many shipwrecked persons to climb the dangerous rope ladder thrown by the rescue ship to the lifeboat on which they stood, leaving the way to all families before falling into the sea and get lost forever; or the greek doctor, who still works in Italy, which remained on board the ferry up until the end, providing his assistance to fellow sufferers, or like some truck drivers who, at great personal risk, managed to hook the towing tugs cable to the Norman Atlantic.

A horror lived in long and intense measure, in extreme psychophysical and weather conditions, which left indelible marks inside all people escaped from death, diagnosed in terms of “post-traumatic stress disorder“, studied for the first time in World War I and Vietnam veterans, and then ascertained as a psychological pathology, typical of disaster survivors, as in the case of the collapse of the twin towers.

After two years we are still waiting for the closing stage of the preliminary investigation by the magistracy and experts appointed by the Criminal Court of Bari. A report that will hopefully shed some light on the many shadows that since the beginning we have emphasized, with regard to ship-owners, the carrier, crew, those who certified the ship but also – and above all – in the maritime great transportation system, where the law of profit – too often – seems to prevail over the safety rules and accident prevention.

Our team “Giustizia per Norman Atlantic” has represented so far about fifty people whose lives were devastated in various ways in the shipping incident, as passengers or as family members of victims or missing. Since the early days we were involved because of our experience in maritime disasters such as the sinking of the “Concordia” and “Jolly Nero“, and directly in the forefront we have provided (in person) assistance for immediate needs and to return home several families, support in the investigations on the DNA for the possible identification of missing persons, aid for the recover of the vehicles following the withdrawal of the vessel seizure (a year and a half after the accident), and then starting – on one hand – filing about 50 complaints and an intense work of investigations in the criminal proceedings – through our consultants and accessing the ship, and – on the other side – opening the negotiations with Anek & Visemar lawyers, in order to achieve a fair and honorable compensation in favor of our clients.

Pre-Trial probative hearing for #NormanAtlantic

After a long wait, the Public Prosecutors of Bari have finally filed the request for the probative hearing, in order to proceed through the Judge experts, to access the ship and examine, jointly with the other parties, to all the data equipment, and investigation results, carried out so far. The experts will be ask to ensure the nature of the malfunction of the fire alarm system, and all supply systems of the motorship Norman Atlantic, the observance of the regulations on ship safety, loading and securing of vehicles, the effective closing of the garage, identification of the causes of the fire, and its propagation, the correctness of the emergency procedures, evacuation and timing of the alarms, in addition to the reliefs of all technical data, in function to the next processual phase of the case .

The GIP (investigating Judge) of Bari, Dr. Alessandra Piliego, has stated the first pre-trial hearing to May 22- 2015, in order to formulate the investigation requests and to formally give the assignment to a college of experts already appointed. We already know the names of some of this experts, or auxiliaries, for being consultants or experts in the Concordia case.

The long list of injured parties in the hearing decree document, is only partial because it is not updated with all further complaints for several other passengers, only recently filed – in many parties of Italy – close to the expiry period of three months after the fact, and apparently not yet formally dispatched to the attention of Bari court offices. This will not be a difficulty as, out of the fact that only some of the passengers apparently proposed a complaint, the GIP ordered the notification of the decree about the probative hearing with public announce, disposing the publication of the document on institutional sites and its transmission to news agency.

We looked forward to start the judicial proceeding operations, that incredibly seemed destined to remain suspended for a long time more. The situation, we must critically comment, seems to have been resolved only with the media pressure most recently placed by the cruise companies Costa Crociere and MSC, complaining about the occupation of the cruise dock in the port of Bari by the wreck Norman Atlantic, from the gruesome and not very reassuring appearance, containing a lot of heavy trucks still loaded of food in an advanced state of decomposition: so, for them, the Norman Atlantic is an inconvenient and stinks wreck.

They seem to forget, however, that this wreck still holds, allegedly, other passenger’s corpse who have not been found or that were not even recorded in boarding list, and that for more than 120 days, many missing’s relatives are anxious to recover and bring home the bodies of their family members, or at least to know if one of the corpses already found on board or at sea in recent months belongs to their relative.

On Monday we will present a formal request to the Prosecutor of Bari in order to proceed, without further delay, to the sample collection for recognition of DNA on family members of some of the missing, and that firstly ask, indeed legitimately require, to know.

After the expert’s operations will also be possible to proceed to a possible restitution, in favor of claimants, of the recoverable vehicles and personal property, if not destroyed in the fire of 28/12/2014.

Our lawyers Massimiliano Gabrielli, Cesare Bulgheroni and Alessandra Guarini will take part at the hearing on May 22, primarily to monitor and protect the interests of the injured parties, but also to assert immediately passenger’s rights, which are still waiting a real offer from the companies.

As for today, Anek Lines and Visemar have not made any kind of concrete offer, avoiding a diligent behavior but mostly, providing an initial and adequate sum for compensation, due, in relation to the victims’ families, some of which, as in the case of truck drivers, have left wives and children without any form of maintenance .

WE ENCLOSE THE FULL DECREE ORDER THAT STATE THE PROBATIVE HEARING