TRIESTE – The Trapani Court of Review has ordered the full lifting of the seizure on Liberty Lines, upholding the appeal filed by the company and its shareholders.
Under the ruling, the company regains possession of its shares and the entire corporate estate, previously placed under seizure as part of the judicial investigation opened in recent months. The decision allows Liberty Lines to operate again with full organisational and management autonomy. The company said service safety was never compromised and that maritime links will continue regularly, in line with the required standards.
The release comes after, in the preceding days, several personal precautionary measures against the company’s top management had already been annulled or reduced. According to what emerged, the Court of Review found that the requirements for keeping the preventive seizure of the assets in place were not met.
The investigation by the Trapani Public Prosecutor’s Office remains ongoing, alleging offences connected to the management of the public maritime transport service, including fraud in the performance of a public service and aggravated fraud against the State. The criminal proceedings continue, but without direct constraints on the company’s operations.
«Liberty Lines has fully regained its organisational autonomy and confirms its daily commitment to guaranteeing the public maritime transport service with the utmost regularity, quality and safety, in full compliance with the obligations undertaken towards citizens and institutions», the company said in a statement.
«The ongoing investigations will follow their natural course. However, even at this stage it clearly emerges that the measures adopted were disproportionate to the alleged facts: the supposed irregularities» – which the company does not recognise as such – «would have concerned 0.22% of the sailings operated in 2021 and 2022. Some of these alleged anomalies could, in theory, be traced back to breakdowns. Breakdowns which, even if they occurred, were promptly resolved without incidents, without damage and without any operational consequences. In no case was the safety of passengers or crews ever compromised», Liberty Lines added.
«During the days of the seizure, the company, its management and its masters were subjected to significant media exposure, in some cases marked by inaccurate and misleading reconstructions. We trust that a full clarification of the facts will restore a correct representation of the matter, and the company will consider any appropriate action to protect its reputation», the statement concludes.
The Sicilian company has on several occasions operated the sea link between Trieste and Croatia, following a tender by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.
