Senate mulls Azzollini arrest request

(ANSA) - Rome, July 28- Senators were set to vote Wednesday on a request to lift parliamentary immunity for the arrest of conservative MP Antonio Azzollini, who is under investigation for alleged involvement in the fraudulent bankruptcy of a Catholic nursing home chain.
    Several parties including the ruling Democratic Party left their Senators free to vote 'according to their conscience,' meaning that Azzollini, a member of the New Centre Right (NCD) party, probably would not be stripped of his immunity through the secret vote, political sources said.
    An Upper House panel has previously voted to allow the arrest. The Senator is implicated in the 500-million-euro bankruptcy case involving the Divine Providence nursing home chain, which employs 1,600 people.
    Azzollini is also the former mayor of the Puglia city of Molfetta, the name of whose Roman Catholic bishop, Monsignor Luigi Martella, has reportedly surfaced in wiretaps involving former Divine Providence managers.