Bari: Laera’s lawsuit against Mazzola dismissed

After the attack in February 2018, the boss’s wife sued the journalist for harassment and defamation

On the 2^nd December 2019 the general prosecutor of the Court of Bari dismissed the lawsuit with which Monica Laera (wife of the crime boss from Puglia Lorenzo Caldarola and herself convicted of organised crime) had accused the television news journalist Maria Grazia Mazzola of harassment and defamation.

THE ACCUSATIONS – The lawsuit was filed after the attack in which, in February 2018, in Bari, Monica Laera reacted to the journalist’s questions (read here) who asked her to comment on an episode involving her son Ivan, allegedly responsible for a sexual assault.

THE AGGRESSION – For that attack, Monica Laera is still awaiting trial. In November 2018, the Bari Public Prosecutor’s Office included the aggravating circumstance of having acted with a Mafia method (read here).

THE LAWSUIT – Laera accused the reporter of harassing her with questions and subsequently damaging her reputation with an article published on February 23^rd 2018 in Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno entitled “I, a beaten up reporter. The Mafia does not like journalists “, and with an interview given during the receipt of a journalistic award.

THE DECISION OF THE GENERAL PROSECUTOR – The prosecutor had already requested the dismissal of the case against Maria Grazia Mazzola, defended by the lawyer Caterina Malavenda. Monica Laera had opposed it. But on December 2^nd 2019 the judge ruled that “the evidence of the crime with reference to the harassment is unfounded” and that, considering the truth of the article, the social relevance and the disciplined language with which it was told, the journalist has correctly exercised the right to report.

RDM