(see previous).
Italy is a "sick democracy" and
there is "a long way to go to stop it becoming a regime,"
suspended Naples Mayor Luigi De Magistris told a press
conference after being served notice he was being suspended
because of an abuse-of-office conviction in his former career as
a prosecutor.
De Magistris, whose 15-month sentence triggered a ban under
an anti-corruption law, voiced the hope he would serve a
suspension of "just 3-4 months", until his appeal verdict comes
out, instead of the longest term possible, 18 months.
He reiterated he had no intention of resigning.
The former prosecutor, convicted of ordering unauthorised
wiretaps of politicians including former premier Romano Prodi,
claimed justice had been hasty in his casee.
"They served the order to (Raimondo) Pasquino, (president
of the Naples city council assembly), when he was in his pyjamas
last night.
"What did they think, that I was going to try to escape?".
De Magistris says the sentence was part of a plot to
wrestle control of Naples from him and that he will now be the
city's mayor "on the streets".
But after receiving the suspension notification he
cancelled his attendance at a ceremony in Naples's troubled
Scampia district.
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