The forced indictment against Justice
Undersecretary Delmastro Delle Vedove for allegedly revealing
official secrets is "unreasonable" and "demonstrates the
irrationality of our system", justice ministry sources said on
Friday.
"What is needed is a radical reform that fully implements the
prosecution system," the sources added.
Following Thursday's decision by a preliminary investigations
judge to reject the prosecution's request to shelve the case
against Delmastro and order that it instead file a request for
his indictment, "'the prosecution will merely insist in the
request for is acquittal consistent with its request for the
probe to be shelved," the sources concluded.
Delmastro, a member of Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party, is under investigation in relation to
revelations made in parliament about the case of jailed
anarchist leader Alfredo Cospito by Giovanni Donzelli, a fellow
FdI MP.
The case concerns an alleged breach of secrecy rules as
Delmastro, who is also Donzelli's flat mate, was the source of
the information his fellow MP disclosed in parliament.
The indictment request will be examined by a preliminary
hearings judge, who will then decide whether or not to send
Delmastro to trial.
On Thursday sources at Palazzo Chigi said in criminal
proceedings it is "unusual" for the public prosecution to ask
for a case to be shelved and for a preliminary investigations
judge to then "impose that the trial be opened".
In consideration of Delmastro's role in government, the sources
said it is therefore "legitimate to ask whether part of the
judiciary has chosen to play an active role in the opposition",
sparking outrage from the opposition.
In January Donzelli told parliament that Cospito, who was on
hunger strike at the time to protest against the tough 41 bis
jail regime he is being held under, had talked to mafia bosses
about having the near-total-isolation treatment abolished.
In Italy, the 'hard prison' 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 kneecapping a nuclear
company executive in 2012.
During the debate Donzelli, a member of the Copasir
parliamentary committee that oversees Italy's intelligence
services, 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. Justice Minister
Carlo Nordio said that the information was not classified.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
