ZAGREB, March 9, 2019 – The municipal court in the coastal town of Šibenik is expected to deliver its ruling on Wednesday regarding the case of businessman Tomislav Horvatinčić who is charged with causing a fatal maritime accident in August 2011 when an Italian couple – Francesco and Marinella Salpietro – were killed.
On Friday, both the prosecution and the defence held their closing statements, with the prosecution suggesting that Horvatinčić should be found guilty and given a prison sentence, whereas his attorneys insisted on their client’s innocence.
This has been his second retrial after he was jailed to 20 months in prison with three years’ probation following the first trial in 2017. After the appeals of the prosecution and the defence were upheld, Horvatinčić went on a retrial in 2018 and he was then acquitted. However, in May 2018, the Zadar County Court’s Appeals Chamber quashed the acquittal and ordered the second retrial.
The Appeals Chamber said that the presiding judge in the first retrial committed major breaches of the penal code as the reasons for the acquittal were significantly contradictory, which was why the Chamber could not examine the verdict, and that the judge’s acceptance of syncope, a temporary loss of consciousness was particularly contradictory, which was the argument clearing Horvatinčić of the charge of killing the Salpietro couple.
The accident occurred near Primošten on 6 August 2011 when Horvatinčić, hit the sailboat of Francesco and Marinella Salpietro from Padua while he travelling at a speed of 26.3 knots in his speedboat, killing the couple.
More news on the Horvatinčić case can be found in the News section.
