First the arrest, then the five months in prison and the two under house arrest, then, finally, the full acquittal. And now the Court of Appeal of Milan has awarded him 60 thousand euros as compensation for the damage suffered for the unjust detention he suffered. Yet it immediately emerged that Erminio Dedodato, an entrepreneur from Vergiate in the Varese area, had nothing to do with that drug dealing ring that ended up at the center of the police investigation which in July 2020 led to his arrest and that of a 43-year-old Albanian who immediately explained how the two kilos of cocaine found in a warehouse used by Diodato's company were his, exonerating the entrepreneur who, according to the 43-year-old, knew nothing about the drug dealing ring.
However, the judicial authorities did not believe the confession and proceeded with the precautionary custody of the entrepreneur and then requested his indictment. Assisted by the lawyer Daniele Galati, who followed him step by step, always believing him and, indeed, finding the evidence that exonerated him from the accusations, Diodato obtained compensation from the State amounting to 60 thousand euros. The Court of Appeal of Milan awarded this by accepting the request for unjust detention. Certainly not what was requested, "but at least it's enough to start over, given that my client lost out on a business worth 240 thousand euros a year. The compensation request was around half a million" underlines the lawyer.
"I lost everything I worked for all my life - adds Diodato - That morning when I was called I didn't even want to contact the lawyer: I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. It was all painful and surreal, as if they were talking about another person". During the investigation the police had found, after an anonymous phone call, over two kilos of cocaine and a press which, according to the investigators, would have been used to package the blocks of narcotics in a warehouse of the Diodato company. He was handcuffed as well as the 43 year old Albanian. The latter immediately confessed that he was the only one responsible for the drugs, exonerating the businessman who nevertheless remained in prison.
Lawyer Galati explains what the investigations revealed and what happened at the trial up until the acquittal: "Already after the first ten days of the arrest there were elements such as to cause the precautionary custody in prison to be dropped. The man arrested with he immediately exonerated him for possession for the purpose of dealing, declaring that the drugs were his and that my client knew nothing. Even the fingerprints found on the blocks of narcotics revealed that Mr. Diodato had never touched them: he was there. only the fingerprints of the other arrested person". Galati also reports that other witnesses corroborated the thesis by explaining that the Albanian in the warehouse had the keys: he went in and out without anyone checking his activities. The first degree trial was definitive, acquittal with the broadest formula for not having committed the crime. And now compensation of 60 thousand euros has arrived from the Milan Court of Appeal for those 145 days of unjust detention.