Ringier waives criminal proceedings against Piero Esteriore

 On Thursday, the singer Piero Esteriore rammed his car into the building of the Ringier publishing house (see ). In Ringier's opinion, he thereby committed intentional damage to property. In the case of this offense, the injured party must file an application in order to initiate criminal prosecution. Ringier condemns Esteriore's conduct and any form of vigilante justice, it says in a statement. Nevertheless, it is waiving its right to file a motion. The media company does not want to make Esteriore's situation even more difficult through such criminal proceedings. However, Ringier will pursue the civil law route, as Group spokesman Marco Castellaneta told Werbewoche: "Material damage has been caused, and Piero Esteriore must of course pay for this.
Police had arrested Esteriore after the incident. He was released Friday afternoon after spending a night in custody. The release was made because there are no grounds for pre-trial detention, as the responsible prosecutor Gabi Alkalay said on Friday in response to an inquiry from SDA. Alkalay had opened proceedings for endangering life. According to witnesses and also Esteriore, however, this was not the case at any time. She will now discontinue these proceedings, the prosecutor said further.
As Castellaneta further explained, the singer will still take place in view: "Our newspapers will continue to report on him as before - nothing has changed".