Liguria. The investigations by the Genoa prosecutor’s office into the alleged corruption that on May 7 led to the arrest of the governor Giovanni Toti (who is still under house arrest), the former president of the port Paolo Emilio Signorini, Aldo Spinelli and Matteo Cozzani will be closed after summer. This is what transpires from the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office which will resume interrogations tomorrow, Wednesday 12 June, after yesterday the former prosecutor Francesco Cozzi (for the 15 thousand euro verbal consultancy to Aldo Spinelli) and the CEO of Autostrade Roberto Tomasi (for the tombing of the Concenter descent).
In the next few hours, the owner and founder of MSC Gianluigi Aponte should be heard, who first threatened Spinelli with reporting him and then, according to the investigators’ hypothesis, reached an agreement with his ‘rival’ on the division of the port docks.
Precisely the need to hear from several witnesses (including the mayor of Genoa Marco Bucci) together with the laborious analysis of the devices (PCs and telephones) seized from the suspects does not allow the prosecutors to close the investigations before the end of the summer.
And precisely the fact that the investigative activity is in full swing is one of the reasons that probably pushed the prosecutors to give a negative opinion to the request presented by the lawyer Stefano Savi to revoke house arrest for governor Toti.
Yesterday the lawyer explained in a press release that “the celebration of the electoral round surpasses one of the reasons given for the precautionary measure”. The next electoral consultations, then, in Liguria will be held in about a year and a half and will concern the renewal of the regional council but, “if this future political commitment is taken as a reference – specifies Savi -, it appears clear that the suspension from the function of governor linked to the precautionary measure would be characterized as a real forfeiture, not provided for by law”. But for the prosecutors, in addition to the risk of repeating the crime, there could also be the risk of evidential pollution for now, until the entire investigation phase is completed. Officially, however, the Prosecutor’s Office has not made it known which opinion was sent to the investigating judge who has until Friday the 14th to decide whether to accept or reject the request.
Meanwhile, the Review Court has set for June 28 the appeal requested by Signorini’s lawyer Enrico Scopesi who had asked the judge to attenuate the precautionary measure. Signorini – we remember – is the only one among the suspects to have ended up in prison and is still imprisoned in the Marassi prison.
And on the possible negative opinion on the revocation of President Toti’s house arrest, leaked in these hours: “”We learn once again from the press what appears to be the prosecutor’s thoughts on an act concerning the investigation. And in particular we cannot accept the interpretation, read and attributed to the prosecutor’s office, which would make the revocation of President Toti’s house arrest conditional on his resignation. A step which, proposed in this way, would be even more surprising than the fact that the public prosecutors could be inclined to express a negative opinion on the request” states the Toti List.
“Aside from the perplexity linked to this strange anticipation, we remain very perplexed by the hypothesis that according to the magistrates there would be the possibility for the governor to repeat the crime. We also appreciated the form of respect towards the magistrates, with the wait for the European elections before presenting the request. The president has never shied away or tried to hide documents and any type of device useful for the investigations, certain of the correctness of his behavior. It seems to us that all these considerations should lead to the acceptance of the request, once every type of possible fear that the investigators could legitimately have had up to now has been overcome”.
“For this reason we hope that the press previews do not really represent the position of the prosecutor’s office and that President Toti can return to work in the Region and that he can lead the council again, side by side with the offices, with Vice President Piana who is doing a great job, and with all of us.” Thus the Toti List, in relation to the hypothesis of a possible negative opinion on the revocation of President Toti’s house arrest” concludes the majority group in the Region.
