The supreme Court of Cassation on
Wednesday upheld a suspended 18-month prison term against
Italian MEP Mimmo Lucano, the mayor of the Calabrian town of
Riace, for making false declarations in public acts, making the
sentence definitive.
The supreme court also rejected an appeal by prosecutors against
the acquittal of Lucano, who earned fame for integrating
migrants and repopulating the location according to the 'Riace
Model', on other charges, including the crime of fraud against
the State.
Domenico 'Mimmo' Lucano, 66, settled 450 refugees in Riace, a
town of 1,800 inhabitants, revitalising it and preventing the
closure of the local school.
He came second in the 2010 World Mayor Competition and was named
40th in a Fortune poll of the world's greatest leaders in 2016.
Lucano had initially been charged with arranging marriages for
citizenship but that charge was subsequently struck down.
However, he was convicted by a first instance court of a series
of felonies over the management of migrants and asylum seekers
and initially sentenced to 13 years, two months in jail in 2021
An appeals court struck down nearly all those charges in 2023.
Lucano served as Riace mayor from 2004 to 2018 and was
re-elected its first citizen last year, when also won a seat for
the Green-Left Alliance in the European elections.
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