“He suffers from loss of cognitive functions” and has “completely lost his walking and dialectical ability”, which is why the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome declared that there was no need to proceed against Manlio Cerroni, who will turn one hundred years old in November.
According to the judges, the former owner of the Malagrotta landfill is too fragile to stand trial and his cognitive functions are too compromised.
And not only that: in the same proceeding for the environmental disaster on the Malagrotta landfill, the Court also acquitted Cerroni’s former right-hand man, Francesco Rando, with the formula “because the fact does not constitute a crimeSo far, there are in fact no culprits for what was the Malagrotta disaster.
The Malagrotta landfill has been the symbol (and problem) of Rome’s waste management for decades. Located in the western suburbs, in the Castel di Guido area, it was the largest landfill in Europe: 240 hectares and up to 5,000 tons of waste per day.
For years it has collected almost all the unsorted waste of the capital and part of the province, becoming a central yet fragile pivot of the system. A model based more on accumulation than on reduction, treatment and recovery.
Behind it was the CO.LA.RI group. (Laziale Waste Consortium) of the entrepreneur Manlio Cerroni, owner of the site. Over time, mechanical-biological treatment plants and gasification projects have been added, often ending in technical stops, seizures and fires.
After the last disastrous fire in 2022, in 2024 the sentence of the trial on the Malagrotta landfill arrived: Manlio Cerroni was sentenced for environmental disaster and negligent disaster, Francesco Rando sentenced for negligent disaster, the first sentenced to 6 years and 4 months of imprisonment, the second to 3 years of imprisonment and both to pay the court costs.
The sentence – in which the court also ordered the former owner of Malagrotta to recover and restore the state of the place – came from the III Court of Assizes of the Court of Rome after a criminal trial that lasted over 10 years. And now it’s as if it had never been there.
