Se hai scelto di non accettare i cookie di profilazione e tracciamento, puoi aderire all’abbonamento "Consentless" a un costo molto accessibile, oppure scegliere un altro abbonamento per accedere ad ANSA.it.

Ti invitiamo a leggere le Condizioni Generali di Servizio, la Cookie Policy e l'Informativa Privacy.

Puoi leggere tutti i titoli di ANSA.it
e 10 contenuti ogni 30 giorni
a €16,99/anno

  • Servizio equivalente a quello accessibile prestando il consenso ai cookie di profilazione pubblicitaria e tracciamento
  • Durata annuale (senza rinnovo automatico)
  • Un pop-up ti avvertirà che hai raggiunto i contenuti consentiti in 30 giorni (potrai continuare a vedere tutti i titoli del sito, ma per aprire altri contenuti dovrai attendere il successivo periodo di 30 giorni)
  • Pubblicità presente ma non profilata o gestibile mediante il pannello delle preferenze
  • Iscrizione alle Newsletter tematiche curate dalle redazioni ANSA.


Per accedere senza limiti a tutti i contenuti di ANSA.it

Scegli il piano di abbonamento più adatto alle tue esigenze.

Judges rule big Rome graft case (3)

Judges rule big Rome graft case (3)

'Mafia method uses force of intimidation'

Rome, 17 October 2017, 13:35

Redazione ANSA

ANSACheck

- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

-     ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Judges in the so-called a big Rome graft case, previously dubbed Capital Mafia, said the criminal activity linked to the convictions handed down on July 20 aren't technically "mafia-method" crimes. In the document issued Tuesday explaining the court's July 20 ruling, the judges specified the crime of "mafia method" requires "exercise of the force of intimidation". They said the crimes in the case can't be classified as Article 416 bis (mafia association) crimes but rather resulted from "systematic use of corruption". In the case, mobsters teamed up with businessmen to syphon off millions of euros in public contracts. The two ringleaders, former rightist militant and ex-gangster Massimo Carminati and leftwing cooperatives chief Salvatore Buzzi, said they could make more from contracts on running Roma and migrant camps than they could have if they had been dealing drugs. In July July 20 Carminati, a former gangster and ex-member of the NAR right-wing terrorist group, was found guilty by a Rome court over allegations he was part of an organisation that muscled in on city contracts worth millions, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
    Buzzi got 19 years.
    The accusation of mafia association was scrubbed for 19 of the 46 defendants in what had until then been known as the Capital Mafia case, including ringleaders Carminati and Buzzi.
    Carminati said he was "satisfied" with the 20-year sentence.
    Judicial sources said he did not get a longer term, 28 years, because the charge of mafia association was scrubbed.
    Carminati also said "now they must immediately remove me from 41 bis", referring to the tough prison regime for mafiosi.
    Carminati's lawyer Giosue' Naso said the judges said "the mafia doesn't exist in Rome, as we've been saying for 30 months".
    He said that, despite this, the verdicts were "absurdly and unusually severe".
    He said Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone was "certainly the beaten one", adding "I don't know if there are any winners".
    Capital Mafia prosecutor Paolo Ielo said after securing a total of 250 years in jail for the defendants that "sentences must be respected" even though judges scrubbed the charge of mafia association and left only simple conspiracy in their sentences.
    "The judges turned us down on some points but sentences must be respected," he said, adding "we will wait for the explanation of the verdict".
    Former Rome migrants panel chief Luca Odevaine got six and a half years while former Rome council assembly chair Mirko Coratti of ex-premier Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party got six years.
    The former Rome city council whip for three-time former premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's now-defunct People of Freedom party, Luca Gramazio, got 11 years.
    Buzzi's wife and secretary were also found guilty in the trial.
    The wife, Alessandra Garrone, got 13 and a half years for helping her husband commit his crimes.
    The secretary, Nadia Cerrito, who kept Buzzi's books, received a five-year sentence.
    Three of the 46 defendants were acquitted.
    They were Rocco Rotolo and Salvatore Ruggiero, for whom prosecutors asked 16 years in jail, and the former general manager of waste and rubbish company AMA, Giovanni Fiscon, for whom a five-year term was asked.
    Prosecutors had said Rotolo and Ruggiero had acted as go-betweens between Capital Mafia ringleaders and the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia.
    Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi was in court for the reading out of the sentences. The city was a civil plaintiff.
    "Today is a victory for Rome's citizens," she said.
    Carminati and Buzzi were caught on a wiretap saying they could make more out of contracts for Roma and migrant camps than they could by dealing drugs.
    The contracts the gang illicitly obtained also included those for public transport and the upkeep of the city's green areas.
    The Italian media have now changed the name of the case to "Middle Earth", a term used by Carminati to described the gang's position between the underground and the world of white-collar crime and corruption.
   

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA

Not to be missed

Share

Or use

ANSA Corporate

If it is news,
it is an ANSA.

We have been collecting, publishing and distributing journalistic information since 1945 with offices in Italy and around the world. Learn more about our services.