Arrest of my parents 'abnormal' - Renzi

(see related story on M5S vote on Salvini's immunity).
    (ANSA) - Rome, February 19 - Ex-premier and former Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi on Tuesday described a decision by magistrates to put his parents under house arrest over alleged fraudulent bankruptcy and false invoices as "abnormal".
    He added that, while he would not say his family was the victim of a plot, the news was "media masterpiece" as it had overshadowed the vote by 5-Star Movement members against M5S lawmakers backing Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's parliamentary immunity being lifted in the Diciotti case.
    "Those who read the documents (for the arrest of Renzi's parents) and have a minimum of legal knowledge know that depriving someone of their personal liberty for something like this is abnormal," Renzi, a PD Senator, said on enews newsletter. "What's more, those who know how things really are know that the documents do not say the truth. But that will be for the trial. "Everyone is equal before the law. My parents, like everyone, have the right to a just trial and I hope a rapid one.
    "I'm not shouting 'plot': I ask for trials to be conducted in courtrooms, not on the web or in newspaper editorial desk rooms.
    "We await the sentences, but sentences are announced in court, not on the streets of populism. "There's no need to say that the case of my parents has totally overshadowed everything that happened yesterday in the world of politics. "All you have to do is read the newspapers to realise. A media masterpiece, hats off".