Critics of the government must await
the final verdict in the case of Justice Undersecretary Andrea
Delmastro fter his indictment by a preliminary hearings judge in
Rome for allegedly revealing classified information regarding
the case of jailed anarchist Alfredo Cospito, Premier Giorgia
Meloni said Saturday.
In Italy, sentences are only considered definitive once they
have gone through two appeals, the second and last to the
supreme Court of Cassation.
Meloni pointed out that some of the prosecutors in the case had
argued against Delmastro's indictment and judicial opinion on
the case was divided.
The undersecretary, a member of Meloni's rightwing Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party, is accused of leaking information that was
potentially embarrassing to the opposition about the Cospito
case to his flat mate and fellow FdI member Giovanni Donzelli, a
member of the Copasir parliamentary committee that oversees
Italy's intelligence services, who subsequently disclosed it in
parliament.
In July prosecutors had requested that the case against the
undersecretary be shelved but a judge said no and ordered them
to present an indictment request.
In January Donzelli told parliament that Cospito, who was on
hunger strike at the time to protest against the 41 bis jail
regime he is being held under, had talked to mafia bosses about
getting the treatment abolished.
The jail regime is usually reserved for mafiosi.
Donzelli also revealed that four lawmakers from the centre-left
opposition Democratic Party (PD) had visited Cospito, who is
serving a combined 30-year sentence for the Fossano bombing in
which two Carabinieri were injured and for kneecapping a nuclear
company executive in 2012.
During the debate Donzelli asked whether the PD was on the side
of the State or that of the mafia and terrorists, sparking
indignation from the opposition.
Delmastro subsequently fuelled the row by saying that the PD
lawmakers had given in to Cospito's demand that they meet other
people being held under the 41 bis, including two mafia bosses,
as a condition for the encounter with him.
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