The trial for the Brandizzo massacre opens in Ivrea: five workers died in 2023

Just over three years after the massacre on the tracks of Brandizzo station, in the Turin area, the trial opens tomorrow at 10am in Ivrea which will have to shed light on the deaths of Kevin Laganà, 22, Michael Zanera (34), Giuseppe Sorvillo (43), Saverio Giuseppe Lombardo (53) and Giuseppe Aversa (49), the five Sigifer workers hit by a passing train while they were preparing to carry out maintenance work on the tracks. It was August 30, 2023. The investigations by the Ivrea prosecutor's office, coordinated by the chief prosecutor Gabriella Viglione together with prosecutors Valentina Bossi and Giulia Nicodemi, were long and meticulous: 24 suspects, 21 individuals and three companies. There is Giampiero Strisciuglio, former CEO of RFI and today at the top of the FS Group. The companies involved in the investigation are Sigifer, Costruzioni Linee Ferroviarie, which had received the contract, and RFi, which had commissioned it. The suspects will appear before the Ivrea magistrate, Mauro Cantone, to respond to various charges of multiple manslaughter and railway disaster, in addition to disputes related to regulations relating to safety at work. Tomorrow's preliminary hearing will also serve to discuss the constitutions of the civil parties. The Municipality of Brandizzo, the Sicurezza e Lavoro association, Fillea and Filt Cgil, as well as Uil, have already announced their presence in the proceedings. It will not be a simple process: due to the amount of documents being examined by the parties, first of all, but also due to the logistical management of the hearings, due to the now chronic lack of space in the Ivrea court. To contain lawyers, defendants and the more than 30 injured parties who have the right to join as civil parties, the court has video-connected two courtrooms, waiting for work to begin on a new 100-seat maxi courtroom which, probably, will not be ready before the spring of 2027. The judge, the prosecution, the lawyers and the defendants will sit in the blue courtroom, video connected to the one where trials are usually held in the Court of Assizes and which will instead host the offended people and their lawyers. The bureau has announced that tomorrow the main entrance of the courthouse will be dedicated solely to the influx of people interested in Brandizzo's hearing. The cordoned off route normally used for the exit will be used for the entry of ordinary users. Close to the hearing time, he warns, "queues could form not only at the entrance to the Court, but also in the surrounding streets".