Festa case, there is a superwitness

There is a superwitness who told the investigators about the anomalies and critical issues relating to the tenders announced by the Municipality of Avellino and the composition of the examination commissions for public competitions. The municipal official – heard by the investigators already in May 2023, a year ago – recounted the critical issues in reference to the examining commissions, the use of external subjects without specific skills, the presence of the same officials on the commissions, the attribution of excess compensation compared to regulatory provisions. Statements made by the official, solely responsible for the procedure which then found effective confirmation – reconstruct the judges of the VIII section of the Court of Review of Naples in the reasons for the order confirming house arrest for the former mayor Gianluca Festa – thanks to wiretaps environmental and the observation and control services put in place by the investigators.

The judges of the Liberties Court also refer to the attempt at misdirection carried out by the former mayor Gianluca Festa. It happens a few days after the searches carried out on March 1st by the carabinieri of the provincial command against the other two suspects in the “Dolce Vita” investigation, Fabio Guerriero (defended by the lawyers Marino Capone and Nicola Quatrano, initially subjected to house arrest, a measure canceled by the judges of the Review) and the former municipal manager Filomena Smiraglia (defended by the lawyer Marco Campora, she was under house arrest, a measure attenuated and replaced with a ban from holding public office for one year). At that moment the former mayor tries to make the PC disappear from his office. On March 4, he ordered a cleanup of bugs and cameras in his room, entrusting it to a private agency.

Not having found them, the next day, he tries to tamper with the computer’s central unit. Failing to do so, he decides – as immortalized by the images of the video surveillance cameras installed by the investigators – to place the computer in a box and then take it out of the office. Computer that was never found again. The investigators hypothesize that it was given to someone near the Hotel de La Ville by the former mayor himself. On this point – during the interrogation, the judges of the Court of Review recall – the former mayor did not provide explanations, deciding to make use of the right not to answer. Therefore, for the judges of the VIII section – in light of the investigations carried out and checks also carried out in the municipal inventory from which the existence of the PC made disappear by Festa emerged – the accusation of embezzlement and misdirection is confirmed.

But the judges go further and specify that – as also clarified by the information drawn up by the Carabinieri on 30 April 2024 – the examination of the contents of the computer hidden by Festa would have allowed the reconstruction of the path that led to the revelation and use of the questions for the competition for traffic policemen, printed by the former mayor and delivered to the father of the candidate Davide Mazza in his office. But not only. The investigators believe that on the morning of 14 December 2023 the former mayor printed material which he then inserted into several envelopes, only one delivered to Antonio Mazza (investigated at large). Therefore it is believed that there are more candidates for the competition who had the exam questions in advance. Confirming this circumstance are some wiretaps received by the investigators and relating to some conversations between the suspects Gianluca Festa and Filomena Smiraglia. «But did you also provide this?» Furthermore, the analysis of the hidden computer would have also allowed the investigators to reconstruct the correspondence maintained by the former mayor with the subjects involved in the sponsorship of the Chocolate Festival.

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