Cosentino 'not a candidate'
Campania heavyweight gives in to plea for untainted tickets
21 January, 17:04
(ANSA) - Rome, January 21 - Camorra-linked former industry
undersecretary Nicola Cosentino will not be a candidate in the
upcoming elections for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of
Freedom (PdL), parliamentary sources told ANSA Monday.Cosentino, a PdL heavyweight in the Campania region around Naples and former party leader there, had reportedly been resisting pressure not to run as part of Berlusconi's efforts to present clean tickets.
Cosentino has been indicted for allegedly helping the Casalesi clan of the Camorra invest in a shopping mall near Caserta. Prosecutors allege he was the "national reference point" of the Casalesis, who come from the Campania town he was born in, Casal di Principe.
Cosentino denies wrongdoing and Berlusconi has described the case against him as an example of alleged judicial persecution.
The Casalesis are the Camorra clan whose death threats have forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano into round-the-clock police protection.
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