"We will ask Tap for a billionaire compensation for damage to the image. If they are sentenced they will compensate billions of euros, because the damage is enormous and the advantage is zero for Puglia. We at Tap don't care." The President of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano said this, commenting on the summons made by the top management of the Tap company, the gas pipeline under construction in Salento.
In fact, the trial of 18 people, including the summits of Tap and the same company, for alleged environmental crimes committed in the construction of the terminal section of the gas pipeline in the territory of Melendugno, in Salento, will begin on 8 May before the Court of Lecce. The Lecce prosecutor, Leonardo Leone De Castris and the deputy Valeria Farina Valaori served a summons to the defendants. There are 15 offended parties, including the Puglia Region, 8 Municipalities represented, the Ministry of the Environment, the president of the No Tap Salento Committee and some associations.
Among the defendants the current top management of the Tap company, Luca Schieppati and Elisabetta De Michelis, the former country manager of Tap Michele Mario Elia, the company's project manager and environmental manager, Gabriele Paolo Lanza; the managers of Saipem, contractor for the construction works of the microtunnel and of the Albania-Italy offshore pipeline, and the owners of the contracting companies.