Did Chico Forti ask a prisoner, who was in a similar prison in Verona prison, to “silence” Marco Travaglio and Selvaggia Lucarelli, director and author of the daily newspaper respectively? “The news is false”, says Andrea Radice, one of the lawyers of the former surfing champion who was sentenced to life in prison in the USA and returned to Italy last May. Interviewed by Il Fatto, the lawyer is categorical: “Forti reiterated that it is true that it is not true”. And he declares: “He told me that he did not or did not even think about what the prisoner said.” Did he ask him? “We will decide what to do.” New aspects also emerge regarding the alleged revelations from the prison. Corriere della sera reports on Sunday July 7 that the prisoner Forti is allegedly facing is a Calabrian over 70, who is considered a “figure of criminal importance” but is not included in the gangs. In the coming days he will be on trial for the ‘Ndrangheta conspiracy in Piedmont.
The third prisoner listened to the conversation, which was heard by the prosecutor Gennaro Ottaviano and a police officer on Tuesday afternoon (the Verona prosecutor Raffaele Tito opened an investigation without suspicion or hypotheses of crime). The prisoner, who is now the subject of investigations to establish his reliability, “specified to the prosecutor that that conversation would take place in reality, but not in the terms reported in the press reports”, explains the Corriere.
Among other things, the story ended up in the newspapers just two days after the events, and now the prisoner fears retaliation. There is another aspect. “The prisoner whom Forti turned to and then reported the situation (…) was refused house arrest by the Court of Cassation”, explains the newspaper.