Acquitted 26 years later

(ANSA) - Sassari, November 14 - Critics of alleged disfunction in the snail-paced Italian judicial system are now pointing to four Sardinian men who had to wait over 26 years for an acquittal in a first-instance trial. Alghero natives Salvatore Budruni, Giuseppe Ballone, Antonio Martiri and Gervasio Madeddu were placed under investigation in 1991 as part of an inquiry into alleged drug trafficking with possible charges of criminal association.
    They were acquitted by a Sassari court in November 2017. A year later, the Sassari section of the Cagliari Court of Appeals ruled that the state will have to pay each of them 600 euros per year of the lengthy judicial ordeal (about 63,000 euros overall) that has ended just as the country is discussing a reform of the judicial and trials system, with the government considering the abolishment of statutes of limitations.