Nineteen investigated in various capacities for corruption for an act contrary to the duties of office, disturbed freedom of auctions, electoral corruption, unauthorized access to the computer system: at the center of the investigation are the brothers Antonio and Emanuele Aufiero of Pratola Serra, respectively former president of the municipal council and former mayor. The Carabinieri of Mirabella Eclano, yesterday, proceeded to notify the 19 investigated of two separate notices of conclusion of preliminary investigations issued respectively by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Naples and that of Avellino. Naples is investigating for the crime of unauthorized access to a computer system: seven people are registered in the register of suspects, among which, in addition to Antonio Aufiero, there are also three employees dthe court of Avellino. The three would have connected several times without any specific official reason to the computer system of the Prosecutor’s Office to view the proceedings against Aufiero, consulting the details and sharing confidential information with him.
Both measures were issued at the conclusion of a complex investigative activity coordinated by the two Campania prosecutors’ offices which made it possible to shed light, compatibly with the phase of the criminal proceedings, on the administration of the Municipality of Pratola Serra in the period in which the brothers Emanuele and Antonio Aufiero held the positions of mayor and president of the municipal council (later dissolved by the Presidency of the Council in October 2020). The wiretaps were decisive for the investigations. “I found a large family… the son applied to the company”. One of the suspects replies to this statement made by one of his supporters: “Let me call a friend… Let me see if…”. The investigators accuse the Aufiero brothers of several episodes of electoral corruption: in October 2020 the then president of the city council, candidate for the Region for Forza Italia, his brother and other members of the local administration allegedly had themselves handed over money behind the promise of public contracts. From the first entrepreneur they would have received a thousand euros. From the company that managed the municipal purifier, in addition to the promise of 30 thousand euros, there would have been the payment of a sum of 1500 euros. The most striking case was that of the assignment of the management of public lighting to a company in the area, which in exchange it would take care of all the costs of the election campaign. The same one that, according to what was reconstructed by the carabinieri, would have financed the headquarters of the Aufiero electoral committee in via Dalmazia and also a two-day holiday in August 2020 in a hotel in Amalfi.
In the investigation carried out by the Irpinia Public Prosecutor’s Office there are also nine voters investigated in collaboration with Antonio Aufiero for electoral corruption: in exchange for votes they asked for favours that go from a parking space for a disabled relative to an interest in a disability visitfrom the guarantee of the appointment of scrutineers to the inclusion of family members in a municipal project called “Environmental protection and surveillance of the Pratola Serra 3 territory”.
Meanwhile, Antonio Aufiero, himself a former mayor, also intervenes in the case:
«In relation to the articles and the strong resonance that this story is having, I intend to represent profound amazement and also regret in seeing me contest such and similar accusatory hypotheses being totally extraneous to the hypothesized facts, having not taken, asked for or received a single euro or other benefit in the administration of public affairs. It is not the first time – continues the former mayor – that accusations have been made against the writer for his activity as administrator of his town, which as is well known have all ended with acquittals, demonstrating the groundlessness of the alleged crime hypotheses. Without prejudice to the above, however, I express the maximum confidence in the work of the judiciary bodies of which I am proud to know the qualities of impartiality and balance, which have always characterized his work, to which – as always done – he offers the most total and unconditional availability”.
