Toti’s interrogation. The governor rejects the accusations and files a brief. «I acted in the interests of citizens, every euro accounted for»

FROM OUR REPORTERS
GENOA – The river interrogation ended shortly after 7pm and lasted 8 hours, in the Guardia di Finanza barracks at the port of Genoa, the governor of Liguria Giovanni Toti arrived before the prosecutors who summoned him, accusing him of corruption and vote-swapping. The questions prepared by the prosecutors were 180. The governor has denied all accusations.

Toti presented a 17-page memoir to supplement the interrogation reports. The document has been written «to explain the political and moral lines who, since I took on the burden of leading the region, have always informed my activities in the sole interest of pursuing the good of the citizens”.

«It is not my intention to avoid your examination – writes the suspect – but today, as well as in the future, there is a firm desire on my part to collaborate, with transparency and honesty, to the reconstruction of the Truth in the supreme interest of Justice, to restore my figure as a man and servant of the State the Dignity that I have constantly tried to preserve.”

In the precautionary custody order «as well as in the entire accusatory system only a very limited part of the relationships between administration, President, and the world of work and business – here is another passage from the document -. And this very limited part becomes a paradigm for everything else.” «It is from a wide-ranging vision, which embraces the entire span of my presidency, that we can appreciate our political vision and fully understand how all my actions (even those contested) were certainly inspired by the right attention towards the companies operating in the area – writes Toti – but with the sole perspective of protecting the collective interest and its progress”

In the 17 pages the Ligurian president also addresses the delicate issue of the funding received: «Every euro collected had a political destination: no contribution has produced personal enrichment or benefit to me, to other members of my party or to private third parties.” It’s still: «Every donation of money was credited using traceable methods and reported. Likewise, all expenses incurred have been reported and publicized in terms of the law and beyond. The budgets and reports were (and still are) published on the websites of the political organizations in support of me.”

«I have never exceeded the specific competences of the relevant bodies and offices, I have never interfered in the free choices and decisions of the subjects involved I have never put pressure on anyone, I have never served a particular interest to the detriment of the collective one” states Toti in another passage of the defense brief. «My intervention at a political/functional level has always been strictly limited to the authorization path traced by the relevant offices in every field, limiting itself to asking for attention consistent with the needs of market speed, or to carry out the works requested by the other administrative and government bodies (port, Mayor Bucci’s Commissioner structures) or to solicit, within the administrative paths and legislative, the diligence and attention of the Ligurian Municipalities in implementing the regional strategic plans”.

Another crucial point of the accusations made against Toti: the exchange vote with the immigrant community from Riesiin Sicily: «With regards to the exchange vote, it should be highlighted that I won the elections with around 380 thousand votes. The support of the Riesina community takes the form, in the investigations, with a certain approximation, of 400 votes, right in proportion and to understand that the contribution is not such as to disturb the democratic balance of the vote, moreover particularly irrelevant in the case of the candidate, Ilaria Cavoto which my support is attributed.”

A reference to the could not be missing relations with the “king” of the port Aldo Spinelli and the meetings on board the yacht of the entrepreneur: «It is enough to know Spinelli’s life and work habits to know that the boat has always been used as a branch of the officebeing physically closer to the Group’s terminals than Spinelli’s home”.

Regarding the relationship with Spinelli, the memoir examines the concessions in favor of the entrepreneur of the areas of the port of Genoa, Carbonile and Rinfuse: «None of the documents are prepared with my active participation nor with that of my offices. All the proposals came from third parties and were processed and evaluated by the offices according to the terms of the law.” In particular, the duration of concession of bulk terminals «fu determined by the offices according to regulatory and operational criteria”. The proposed assignment of Carbonile Enel to the Spinelli group «it was prepared by the Port Authority offices and not subject to either administrative or technical evaluation by the Region’s offices».

Toti then responds to the accusations regarding the relations with the Testa brothersbelieved to be linked to mafia clans: «They were presented as political activists with positions in the Lombardy Region by two Honorable Members. They were there in their CV political positions linked to the Lombardy Regional Council. Both Honorable Members (Sorte and Benigni) guaranteed their personal qualities… I gave a mandate to my collaborators to give them attention within the terms of the law. But never to offer utility in exchange for votes.”

Here is a summary of the crimes alleged against the Ligurian governor.

This is the general scenario: the investigators dispute to the President of the Region a round of bribes to favor the port entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli and the Esselunga group. Then the funding for his electoral committees: in Spinelli’s case in exchange for the renewal – according to the accusation – of the thirty-year concession of the Rinfuse Terminal in addition to other assignments; in the case of Esselunga the unblocking of two practices regarding the opening of as many group sales points in Sestri Ponente and Savona.

With Toti there is the lawyer Stefano Savi, his defender. In front of him were prosecutors Federico Manotti of the anti-mafiaLuca Monteverde and the deputy prosecutor Vittorio Miniati.

Under house arrest since May 7th, the president of the Region, in the headquarters of the Roan of the Guardia di Finanza (the air and naval operational department) Toti
he will have to explain, question after question, the reasons for his alleged “pressing” regarding the thirty-year extension of the concession to the Rinfuse Terminal, a storage area at the port of Genoa. The permits would have been given by the port management committee while the procedure should have been more complexalso involving the Region.

Toti, 55 years old, former Mediaset journalist, from Viareggio, he will also be called to clarify whether there were serious relationships, for a vote of exchange, with the Testa twins, the “Riesini” who in the Certosa district, in view of the 2020 regional elections, they controlled around 400 preferences. For those contacts, his chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani is under investigation for exchanging votes with the mafia.

And again: there is the presumed interest to allocate a part of the public beach of Punta Olmo, in Celle Ligurefor private use for the 42 apartments budgeted by shoo Aldo Spinelli.

Finally: for the governor there is also the issue, which has emerged in recent days, of the 55 thousand euros passed, in three different transfers between 10 June and 2 October 2022 (therefore among the administrative ones the policies of that year), from the coffers of the Toti list committee to his personal current account. For Stefano Savi, Toti’s lawyer, that money was used to pay the 25 thousand euros in compensation to Raffaella Paita, current senator of Italia viva, who had sued him for some phrases that appeared on social media and in some interviews. The civil court of La Spezia, in a ruling dated 15 July 2022, considered them defamatory, condemning the governor who took the cash from the committee’s bank account, “circumstance falling – specifies the defense – in normal political activity”.

Other questions concern financing received not only by Aldo Spinelli and Francesco Moncada, but also by the landfill king Pietro Colucci and other entrepreneurs.

Regardless of the possible criminal conviction, cWhat does the governor risk? The opposition calls for his resignation. But Toti, according to what filters through the lawyer, has very clear ideas. «From the beginning he said that it is an evaluation that will be made, but not alone – explains Savi – because it has significant repercussions on the institutional framework and must be undertaken after consulting his collaborators and the political forces of his majority”.

May 23, 2024 (modified May 24, 2024 | 08:23)

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