Former book prize boss convicted for embezzlement
Ex-Grinzane Cavour president Giuliano Soria gets 14.5 years
22 March, 13:52
(ANSA) - Turin, March 22 - One of Italy's best-known
intellectuals and the former president of the prestigious
Grinzane Cavour book prize was convicted Friday for embezzlement
of public funds and sentenced to 14 and a half years in prison.
Giuliano Soria was arrested in 2009 for using around one
million euros of funds from the culture ministry and the
Piedmont region for private means.Soria, 62, helped found the Grinzane Cavour prize in 1982.
The prize counts a number of authors among its recipients who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, including Wole Soyinka, Jose' Saramago, Gunter Grass, Orhan Pamuk and Doris Lessing.
Soria was also convicted Friday for violence against his former Mauritian valet.
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