Brindisi Mayor Cosimo
'Mimmo' Consales and his 32-member city council resigned from
office on Monday.
Consales, who was placed under house arrest on corruption
charges on Saturday, said he is quitting in order to "defend
himself".
The mass resignation paves the way for local elections in
June.
A former journalist who was elected in 2012 on a Democratic
Party (PD) ticket with support from the New Center Right (NCD)
and the Left Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party among others,
Consales is accused of taking a 30,000-euro bribe in exchange
for a contract to manage a waste treatment plant.
Consales, who suspended himself from the PD in 2013, was
arrested along with environmental businessman Luca Screti and
his administration executive, Massimo Vergara. A fourth suspect,
Marcello Caramuscio, remains at large.
Screti allegedly paid 30,000 euros in back taxes owed by
Consales, with Vergara's help.
Screti will be questioned on Tuesday, prosecution sources
said.
The suspects may face charges ranging from corruption and
actions contrary to official duties, to fraud in public
supplying, defrauding the city, and illegal management of a
landfill.
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