(ANSA) Rome, April 16 - Hardline right-wing MP Maurizio
Gasparri was indicted Wednesday for allegedly embezzling some
600,000 euros from state funds to Silvio Berlusconi's
now-defunct People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Judge Cinzia Parasporo ordered Gasparri, a former member of
the neo-Fascist MSI party who later became an ardent Berlusconi
supporter, stand trial October 1 on charges of filching the
money to buy himself a life insurance policy.
Gasparri subsequently paid back the cash in two tranches
after he was busted for the alleged embezzlement.
According to the indictment the investigation headed by
Judge Alberto Pioletti established that:
"(Gasparri), having access to sums of money from the Senate
budget allocated as contributions to the workings of the office
of the leader of his parliamentary group, helped himself to
600,000 euros using them to buy an insurance policy in his own
name valid for his entire lifetime and for his beneficiaries in
case of death".
Berlusconi dissolved the PdL and revived his first party,
Forza Italia, after a pro-government group peeled off last year,
refusing to bring down the executive when the ruling Democratic
Party (PD) insisted on enforcing a ban from office for the
three-time premier and media magnate because of a tax-fraud
conviction.
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