Cyberespionage Case: The Occhionero Siblings' Legal Battle Continues

Giulio Occhionero, the Roman engineer accused along with his sister Francesca Maria, of organizing an alleged cyberespionage operation against politicians and influential figures, remains in jail. This was established by the Review Court, almost a year after the arrest, which occurred on January 9. The appeal filed by the defendant's lawyer, Stefano Parretta, was rejected. While the Occhionero siblings are on trial for attempting to violate email addresses linked to institutional sites and political figures, the prosecutor Eugenio Albamonte has opened a new investigation against them, in which political espionage is also suspected. In the second thread, the two are accused of having intercepted, since 2004, over three and a half million emails and of having spied on six thousand people. 'The decision of the Review Court saddens us,' says lawyer Parretta, 'because, almost a year after the arrest and with a trial now moving towards conclusion, the decision to keep Occhionero in jail seems completely incomprehensible. A form of persecution perhaps linked to the fact that my client never wanted to cooperate with the investigators, whom he has, instead, reported to the Prosecutor's Office of Perugia.'