Three Syracusans accused of kidnapping in Scicli acquitted

The Court of Assizes of Syracuse has acquitted Yari Aglianò, Andrea Failla and Tharinda Mallawa, the three Syracuse defendants who had chosen the ordinary rite in the trial for the alleged kidnapping which took place in Scicli, in the Ragusa area. The sentence came after the indictment of the public prosecutor of the Catania District Attorney's Office, who had requested acquittal for all three.

The disputed facts

At the center of the story, according to the investigative reconstruction, is an episode on 20 June 2024 in the Jungi district of Scicli, which occurred as part of an unpaid drug shipment: around four kilos of hashish, worth around 15 thousand euros, which a group of young people from Modica and Scicli allegedly received from some Syracusans without repaying the debt. The reaction would have been an armed expedition to Scicli, with a shootout and the kidnapping of a nineteen-year-old, taken away to obtain the return of the drugs or money. During the transfer, the young man attempted to escape by jumping from the moving car and was injured in the shoulder by a gunshot. The following day the carabinieri identified him and freed him in an apartment in via Privitera, in the Borgata di Siracusa.

Nine arrests in January 2025

In January 2025 the investigation had led to nine arrests, four of which involved minors, tried separately. Aglianò, defended by the lawyer Junio ​​Celesti, had maintained his ignorance of the facts. The defense had focused on some videos published on TikTok, which portrayed him in Syracuse, also in Ortigia and the sea, and on the testimonies of his wife and a friend, called to confirm his presence in those places. A decisive element that also involved the other two defendants.