Basilicata ex-governor indicted

(ANSA) - Matera, February 18 - The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) former governor of the southern Italian region of Basilicata, Marcelo Pittella, was sent to trial Tuesday in a healthcare case that spurred his resignation in January 2019.
    Some 34 people and two companies were involved in the probe.
    Some 22 people were arrested in July 2018.
    Pittella was put under house arrest in relation to a probe into alleged corruption in Basilicata's health system.
    Pittella was among 30 people put under restrictive measures by finance police in relation to the investigation.
    He was under house arrest at his home in Lauria, near Potenza.
    Pittella is accused of abuse of office and of making false declarations, friendly sources said, describing his arrest as "surreal".
    The probe regards allegations of manipulation of public contract competitions and nepotism in the regional health sector.
    The investigation started two years previously following a report by an employee for a service contractor company who had not received his share of money set aside for the TFR severance package.
    Prosecutors said Pittella was the "deus ex machina" of "institutional distortion".
    He and the others were able to enforce "a total political conditioning of the public health service on the part of private interests and clientist political logic", police said.