The anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S) mayor of Quarto near Naples, Rosa Capuozzo, said
Tuesday she was not quitting even after her party expelled her
over alleged blackmail by a former M5S member linked to the
local Camorra mafia.
The statement came shortly before Capuozzo was heard by
Naples prosecutors as a witness in the Mafia infiltration case.
Capuozzo is resisting calls from all sides - including
invitations from M5S leaders Beppe Grillo and Gianroberto
Casaleggio - to step down. The M5S recently ejected former
Quarto city councillor Giovanni De Robbio after he was placed
under investigation on suspicion of taking Camorra votes in
exchange for a public works project.
The top ranks of the M5S knew Capuozzo was being
blackmailed by an M5S member but they kept it quiet, Democratic
Party (PD) Senator Franco Mirabelli said Tuesday.
"Grillo and Casaleggio expelled Capuozzo...and we will ask
she be heard by the parliamentary anti-Mafia commission," said
Mirabelli, who is the PD caucus leader on that commission.
"We need to know the truth because you can't get away with
it just by expelling people," he said. "National M5S executives
are clearly involved... Both (Luigi) Di Maio and (Roberto) Fico
knew about this issue since November, as is made clear in the
wiretaps," he said.
"But none of them reported it to police".
M5S bigwigs earlier on Tuesday denied knowing about the
goings-on in Quarto. Fico, chair of the parliamentary oversight
commission on RAI State TV, said neither he nor Lower House
Deputy Speaker Luigi Di Maio "ever knew about any blackmail,
threat or trade-off via threats to obtain something".
On Monday, police released a wiretapped December 16
conversation between Capuozzo and M5S caucus leader Alessandro
Nicolais, in which the embattled mayor said she will quit before
"ending up in prison for someone else".
"I can't take it anymore," Capuozzo is heard telling
Nicolais in tears. "I can take anything, but I won't end up in
prison for someone else...I've been threatened over everything
and anything".
Nicolais reportedly replied: "Fico answered me 10 minutes
ago, he wrote me: keep going and don't worry. I'll come as soon
as I can".
Police searched the town council offices as well Capuozzo
and Nicolais' homes following the wiretaps, which investigators
say contradict the mayor's previous statements that she hadn't
been subject to blackmail.
The anti-euro M5S prides itself on being an outsider to
what it says is the corrupt, conniving political system in
Italy, where it is currently the second-largest party after
Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD).
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