A court in Brescia on Tuesday handed
an eight-month suspended sentence to Milan prosecutors Fabio De
Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro on charges of refusal to perform a
duty for failing to file documents that were allegedly in favour
of the defence in the Eni/Shell-Nigeria corruption case that
ended with the acquittal of all defendants.
The court was chaired by Judge Roberto Spanò.
Brescia has jurisdiction over magistrates in the nearby city of
Milan.
The Brescia judges ruled that De Pascale and Spadaro as State
attorneys had a legal obligation to present all documents during
the trial, including those that could have helped the defence's
case and had infringed the defendants' rights by failing to
provide them.
Defence attorneys for the magistrates had requested a full
acquittal, claiming no rule directly required State attorneys to
present the documents.
Oil giants Eni and Shell and all defendants were acquitted in
March 2021 by a tribunal in Milan over allegations of corruption
in Nigeria.
The long-running case focused on the 1.3-billion dollar purchase
of an offshore oil block in 2011 in which prosecutors had
claimed the majority of the money was used to bribe Nigerian
officials.
However, the court in Milan said the two companies and 13
defendants, who were executives at the two firms, had no case to
answer.
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