Cassation's Rigopiano sentence postponed to Dec. 3

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 28 - A sentence to be issued by Italy's supreme Cassation Court on the 2017 Rigopiano Hotel avalanche disaster in Abruzzo has been postponed to December 3.
    The Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola was swept away and destroyed by an avalanche on 18 January 2017, an event in which 29 people died.
    The charges of culpable disaster and manslaughter, excluded in the first instance and appeal trials, will need to be examined in a second appeal in Perugia, with the involvement of other officials who worked for the local prefecture and the Abruzzo region, who were acquitted, judicial sources said.
    Last February, an appeals court convicted eight people and acquitted 22 others in relation to the Rigopiano avalanche disaster.
    Judges in the regional capital L'Aquila upheld the convictions handed down at first instance against Farindola mayor Ilario Lacchetta, provincial officials Paolo D'Incecco and Mauro Di Blasio, technician Giuseppe Gatto and former hotel manager Bruno Di Tommaso.
    They also handed down a guilty verdict against former Pescara prefect Francesco Provolo, his former cabinet chief Leonardo Bianco and Enrico Colangeli, a municipal technician from Farindola, who had all been acquitted at first instance.
    Provolo received a sentence of one year and eight months for forgery and omission of official acts.
    The tragedy occurred in the mountain resort of Rigopiano in Farindola as 40 people, including guests and staff, were inside a hotel waiting for help following extreme weather conditions and a series of earthquakes in the area.
    Most of the 29 victims were instantly crushed to death.
    Eleven people survived.
    Rescuers reached the site several hours after the avalanche and had to travel on foot because roads were blocked by heavy snow.
    In February 2023 a preliminary hearings judge in Pescara convicted five people and acquitted 25 others in relation to the tragedy, amid strong protests from victims' relatives in the courtroom.
    The 30 defendants, including administrators and public officials, as well as the manager and owner of the hotel, were charged in various capacities with the offences of culpable disaster, multiple culpable homicide, injuries, forgery, deception and building abuse. (ANSA).