Naples Mayor Luigi De
Magistris told the city's council on Friday that "we are faced
with a deeply corrupt State" and suggested his abuse-of-office
conviction this week was part of a plot to wrestle control of
the city from him.
The former magistrate also refused to quit, shortly after
Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso said that a 2012 anti-corruption
law suspending people convicted of certain crimes from public
office should be applied to his case.
De Magistris was handed a suspended 15-month sentence on
Wednesday for involvement in obtaining the telephone data of
some MPs, including former premier Romano Prodi, without the
proper authorisation during a probe.
"While the picture appears even more confused, it also
appears clearer that they are working to get their hands on the
city," De Magistris said Friday.
"We have to make our fellow citizens understand that the
stakes are high.
"I don't think they can wipe out this experience (of local
government) with blows landed by judicial technicalities".
He added, however, that he was a "man of the (public)
institutions" and had faith that "the institutions will be able
to repair this violation of the law".
He also reiterated that he intended to serve till the end
of his term in 2016.
"We don't have arms but we know how to resist and we will
resist," he said.
"They are calling on me to resign because of this
conviction, but looking in the mirror, it's those judges (who
handed down the conviction) who should quit".
The comments earned the 47-year-old mayor a reproach from
the Italian National Magistrates Association (ANM), which
blasted them as "grave and offensive".
The ANM said the comments were "even more unacceptable
coming from a man of the (public) institutions who has had a
judicial role for years".
"Without going into the judicial case, the ANM notes that
the expressions used go well beyond the limits of legitimate
criticism of a sentence, because they express contempt for
application of the law," added the ANM statement.
Grasso, meanwhile, said he saw no reason why the same
anti-corruption law that led to ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi
being ejected from parliament last year following a definitive
tax-fraud conviction should not be used on De Magistris.
"The Severino law should be applied," said Grasso
referring to the measure named after former justice minister
Paola Severino.
"It's been applied to other mayors. I think it's
inevitable that it will be applied.
"Subsequently there will be the appeal, which will give a
definitive picture of the affair".
De Magistris said Friday that the Severino law should not
apply to his case as it was approved after the trial against him
had started.
Rome prosecutors in May had asked for the case against him
to be dropped.
They argued he only had a secondary role in the handling
of the related part of the so-called Why Not case in the
southern region of Calabria and should therefore be acquitted.
But a court in Rome ordered the case against him to
proceed.
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