The mayor of the northern
town of Legnano, Gianbattista Fratus, was among three people
arrested by finance police on Thursday in relation to a case of
alleged bribes, sources said.
Fratus is accused of electoral corruption and was put under
house arrest, as was the town's public works chief, Chiara
Lazzarini, the sources said.
But the town's deputy mayor and budget chief, Maurizio Cozzi,
was taken to jail, according to the sources.
The case is a latest in a long series involving the whole
Italian political arena, including a big Milan investigation
involving Lara Comi, an MEP for former three-time premier and
media magnate Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI)
party, who has been put under investigation.
"It is clear that there is a corruption emergency," said
Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the anti-graft
5-Star Movement (M5S).
"It's a second Tangentopoli," he added, referring to the
'bribesville' scandal that brought down Italy's post-war
political establishment in the 1990s.
"It hits all the parties and we must stem this problem".
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