New Centre Right (NCD) Senator
Antonio Azzollini quit as chair of the Senate budget committee
Wednesday ahead of an immunity-panel vote later in the day on a
prosecutor's request to arrest him for suspected graft amid the
fraudulent bankruptcy of a Puglia nursing-home chain called
Divine Providence.
Announcing his decision, Azzollini reiterated his innocence
and said the committee needed a chair who could devote himself
entirely to the position.
Premier Matteo Renzi's ruling Democratic Party (PD), the
NCD's senior partner in government, has said it will vote in
favour of granting the arrest request.
Prosecutors in the Puglia town of Trani have sent a request
to the Senate parliamentary immunity panel to be allowed to
arrest Azzollini in the 500-million-euro bankruptcy case
involving the Divine Providence nursing home chain, which
employs 1,600 people.
Azzollini is also the former mayor of the Puglia city of
Molfetta, the name of whose bishop, Monsignor Luigi Martella,
has reportedly surfaced in wiretaps involving former Divine
Providence managers.
The probe last month led to the issuing of arrest warrants
for 10 people, including Azzollini and two nuns.
Sister Marcella Cesa and Sister Consolata Puzzello were
placed under house arrest on charges of conspiring to
commit false bankruptcy and other crimes.
Meanwhile in Trani, prosecutors are running checks on at
least two high-ranking representatives of the Catholic Church in
connection with the case, whose names have not been released.
One of the prelates being probed allegedly had a role in
the controversial former management of the Institute for
Religious Works (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank.
Divine Providence staffers are not in danger of losing
their jobs however, according to special commissioner Bartolo
Cozzoli, a lawyer.
"Our sole objective is to put this company back on its feet
as soon as possible, so it can compete in a complex market,"
Cozzoli said.
PD Deputy Secretary Lorenzo Guerini assured critics the
scandal won't threaten the majority coalition - which is no
stranger to controversy after former Transport and
Infrastructure Minister Maurizio Lupi, also from the NCD party,
stepped down in March amid a graft scandal.
Lupi, who was not under investigation, had come under fire
over allegations he asked for favours for his son from arrested
graft suspect Ercole Incalza, a former top executive at his
ministry.
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