Courts says no to Scajola mafia charges

(ANSA) - Reggio Calabria, October 22 - A court in Reggio Calabria on Wednesday upheld a ruling that charges of mafia association against former cabinet minister Claudio Scajola cannot be included as an aggravating factor with another charges he faces for allegedly helping a convicted criminal flee the country.
    However, Italy's Anti-Mafia Directorate can appeal that ruling to the nation's highest appeal body, the Cassation Court.
    Scajola, a former government interior and industry minister, had no comment when he arrived in court Wednesday morning, accompanied by his lawyer Giorgio Perroni, to face the charges.
    Perroni said that under the conditions of Scajola's house arrest, he is not permitted to speak with the media.
    Prosecutors have argued that Scajola and other defendants in the case allegedly helped with the escape from Italy of Amedeo Matacena, a former MP for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party who had been convicted of Mafia links.
    Matacena is still at large in Dubai, having fled Italy to avoid serving his sentence imposed for working with the mafia, particularly the powerful 'Ndrangheta mob.
    Also facing charges of assisting Matacena is his secretary Maria Grazia Fiordalisi.
    His wife Chiara Rizzo and assistant Martino Politi face similar charges and are also believed to have tried to conceal Matacena's assets to prevent them from being seized.
    Matacena announced in June that he would return to Italy from Dubai to serve his time in order to give his children "their mother back", but so far has not come back.
    Scajola has had other encounters with the judicial authorities.
    In January a judge acquitted him and his co-defendant, businessman Diego Anemone, on charges related to a shady real-estate deal involving an expensive home with a view on Rome's iconic Colosseum that led to his resignation as industry minister in Berlusoni's third government in 2010.
    The judge cleared Scajola, saying his assertion that Anemone had paid for most of the flat for him without his knowledge was credible.
    Prosecutors, who had demanded Scajola be given a three-year prison term, are appealing against the acquittal.
    Scajola was also forced to resign as interior minister from a previous Berlusconi government in July 2002 after sparking controversy by making derogatory remarks about slain Labor Ministry aide Marco Biagi.
    Biagi was gunned down the previous March by the Red Brigades after being denied a police escort by Scajola.
    In off-the-cuff remarks, Scajola said Biagi had been a "pain in the a**" and that had Biagi been given an escort "three people would have been killed instead of one".