Also present are the governor of Puglia Michele Emiliano and the mayor of Bari Antonio Decaro, in court in Bari for the start of the trial before the Tribunal for 15 of the more than one hundred defendants involved in the Internal Code investigation conducted by the DDA and the Bari mobile squad and which revealed alleged connections between the mafia, politics and city entrepreneurship.
The investigation, last February 26, led to 130 arrests, including former regional councilor Giacomo Olivieri, his wife and former city councilor Maria Carmen Lorusso and her father, oncologist Vito. It also led to the judicial administration of Amtab, the municipal transport company, for alleged mafia infiltration, particularly in the management of hiring. Alternative procedures have been requested for over 124 defendants: the immediate trial began today for the 15 involved, another 109 (including Olivieri) have requested an abbreviated procedure and the hearing for them has yet to be set.
In the hearing, in addition to the Puglia Region and the Municipality of Bari, the Municipality of Altamura, Amtab, the Ministries of the Interior, Economy and Finance and Justice, as well as the FIGC, also presented the request to be constituted as civil parties. The investigation, in fact, also concerns the alleged fixing of matches between Corato and Fortis Altamura (Eccellenza championship) in the years 2017 and 2018.
The hearing was short and was immediately postponed to July 16 at 2:30 p.m., because the president of the judging panel, Domenico Mascolo, filed a motion to abstain. At the next hearing, the trial will resume before a new panel, which will decide on the requests to join the civil action.
