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.

“This sentence marks the death of prevention in Italy,” said Egidio Bonifazi, the father of Emanuele, a 31-year-old receptionist at the Rigopiano hotel.

Bonifazi added that all the avalanche warnings had been ignored.

“What’s the point of doing prevention?” he asked rhetorically.

“I felt a lot of confusion.

“They have not done justice.

“I am very bitter because the main perpetrators have not been punished.”

“We expected more: the conviction of the Region and the Province,” said Alessio Feniello, father of 28-year-old Stefano, another victim who died under the rubble of the hotel.

“I don’t think it’s normal to convict a municipal technician and the former prefect for falsehood.

“Other people should have been convicted. Had they all been given life imprisonment today, it wouldn’t have changed anything for me.

“I can look at the photo of my son and say I did my duty to give you justice,” he added.

The tragedy occurred in the mountain resort of Rigopiano in Farindola on January 18, 2017, 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