New political storm in Sicily. The Carabinieri of Catania they carried out a precautionary measure order against 11 people including political representatives, municipal officials and entrepreneurs. The accusations, for various reasons, are of political-mafia electoral exchange, extortion aggravated by the mafia method, corruption aggravated, incitement to corruption And disturbed freedom of enchantments. Among those arrested the mayor of Tremestieri Etneo, Santi Rando. His political opponent is under house arrest, Mario Ronsisvalle, then his ally. The vice-president of the Region was investigated for corruption and suspended from public functions for a year Luca Sammartinowho is also regional councilor for Agriculture and one of the leading exponents of the Sicilian League.
Who is Luca Sammartino
Sammartino, suspended from public duties for a year, had just returned from Vinitaly, where he managed Sicily’s participation in the Verona Fair. Vice President of the Region and Councilor for Agriculture in Renato Schifani’s government, he is the reference shareholder of Salvini’s League in Sicily. For the Schifani government he also has responsibility for relations with the Sicilian Regional Assembly. He is among the most prominent politicians on the island and in the last two regional elections he was the most voted or among the most voted in Sicily. In the internal dispute within the League a few months ago, the Sammartano current had prevailed over the wing that referred to MEP Annalisa Tardino who was later replaced as leader of the Northern League by Claudio Durigon. In the past he had been a member of the UDC, then moved to the Democratic Party and subsequently joined Italia Viva, before arriving at the League.
The investigations
The provision was issued as part of investigations by the investigative unit of the Carabinieri of the provincial command of Catania conducted between 2018 and 2011 and coordinated by the Etna District Attorney’s Office. From the investigation, called Pandora, these would emerge illicit agreements between some administrators of the Municipality of Tremestieri Etneo and elements close to the Santaopaola-Ercolano mafia gang, regarding the 2015 election of the current mayor Santi Rando, recipient of a precautionary custody order in prison for political-mafia electoral exchange and aggravated corruption. Further investigations would have shed light on what the Prosecutor’s Office defines as “the subsequent ‘business degeneration’ of the organisation, implemented by disloyal officials through numerous bribes, to grant permits and assign jobs to ‘friendly entrepreneurs'”.
Furthermore, according to the reconstruction of the prosecution, “a strategy of the municipal leaders” aimed at “neutralize any form of political opposition”. For the Prosecutor’s Office it would have been “the corrupt agreement with the historic opposition councilor Mario Ronsivalle, then passed among Rando’s supporters for the 2021 administrative elections.” Ronsisvalle, owner of a pharmacy in Tremestieri, contests the Prosecutor’s Office “also thanks to the intervention of Luca Rosario Sammartino, main political contact of the mayor, at the time of the facts regional deputy and current vice-president of the Region, would have been advantaged through the reduction of the number of pharmacies present in the municipal organic plan, promising in exchange electoral support, for the 2019 European elections, to the candidate supported by Sammartino”.
Source: Tgcom24.mediaset.it
Tags: Sicily vote swapping corruption vice president Region suspended
