Gabriella Mondello, a former lamwaker for the small centrist UDC party, was convicted on Friday in a case regarding infiltration by the Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta mafia in the political and economic fabric of the northern town of Lavagna. She was handed a jail term of 18 months. Giuseppe Sanguineti, the former mayor of the town near Genoa, got a two-year sentence. Stiffer terms were handed out to members of the local organized-crime scene in relation to the case, with Paolo Nucera getting 16 years, six months; Francesco Antonio Rodà getting 15 years, eight months; and Francesco Nucera getting nine years, six months.
"I was expecting it because I was a symbol of the political world in this trial," Mondello said. "But I am completely innocent and this will come out in the appeals trial".
Convictions are not considered definitive in Italy until the two-tier appeals process has been exhausted.
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