Liguria. The investigating judge Paola Faggioni rejected the request to revoke house arrest for the president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti. For the judge, there is still the risk of evidentiary pollution given that the investigations by the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office are still ongoing and also the risk of repetition of the crime. As claimed by the prosecutors who gave a negative opinion precisely on the basis of these two precautionary requirements.
For the Prosecutor’s Office, the risk of repetition of the crime derives not so much from the link with the electoral rounds but precisely from the governor’s modus operandi, i.e. taking particular action for the entrepreneurs who finance him which he himself plainly claimed in the interrogation, defining it as a legitimate activity politics, while for the prosecutors it is instead about corruption. And therefore for the Prosecutor’s Office, returning to his role as president of the Region Toti could continue on that path.
In addition to this, according to the prosecution, there is a risk of evidentiary pollution given that the investigations are not yet closed and the investigative activity of the Prosecutor’s Office and the financial police is in full swing: in this phase Toti could influence the witnesses who have yet to be heard by prosecutors.
In the investigating judge’s decision, explicit reference is also made to the next 2025 elections: “It is clear, also in light of recent investigative developments, that there remains a danger that the suspect may repeat similar conduct – which is also considered fully legitimate and correct by the aforementioned – in view of the next regional electoral competitions in 2025 (or any further electoral competitions), for which the aforementioned had, moreover, already started the relevant fundraising”, writes judge Paola Faggioni.
“This danger becomes even more concrete when one considers that the aforementioned person still continues to hold the same functions and public positions, with the consequent possibility that they will once again be put at the service of private interests in exchange for funding”, he adds, rejecting the request from the lawyer Stefano Savi.
The request for the revocation of house arrest was presented by Toti’s lawyer on Monday 10 June, the day after the vote for the European elections. “Without going into the merits of the matter and the reasons for the precautionary measure, we believe that, in any case, today there are the conditions for the revocation of the measure, or, alternatively, for its attenuation” Savi had written in the document, also signed by the governor himself. “As for the risk of repetition of the crime, the celebration of the electoral round overcomes one of the reasons given for the precautionary measure. Furthermore, the Toti list did not participate in either the European elections or the concurrent administrative ones”, Savi explained, recalling that “the next electoral consultations in Liguria will in fact be held in about a year and a half and will concern the renewal of the Regional Council” and adding that “if this future political commitment were taken as a reference, it appears clear that the suspension from the function of president linked to the precautionary measure would be characterized as a real forfeiture, not foreseen by the law precisely to protect the popular will expressed through free elections” .
Toti was arrested on May 7 on corruption charges. According to the prosecutors, the president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti accepted the promises of various loans from Aldo Spinelli and Roberto Spinelli and received a total of 74,100 euros for the commitment – to “find a solution” for the transformation of the free beach of Punta Dell’ Olmo from “free” to “private”.
In the over 600 pages of the provision, the investigators reconstruct how a building procedure relating to the Punta Dell’Olmo real estate complex of interest to Aldo Spinelli and Roberto Spinelli and pending at the regional offices would have been facilitated, to speed up and approve the renewal procedure for thirty years of the concession of the Rinfuse Terminal to Terminal Rinfuse Genova srl (55% controlled by Spinelli Srl) pending before the Management Committee of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea, approved on 2.12.2021, – to assign to Spinelli the former Carbonile ITAR and Carbonile Levante port spaces (assignment occurred respectively on 7.6.22 and 19.12.22), – to assign to Spinelli a state-owned area used by the concessionaire Società Autostrade (ASPI). Again, according to what was reconstructed by the prosecutors, Toti would have facilitated Spinelli in the practice of “burying” Calata Concenter.
In addition to Spinelli’s practices, Toti is also accused of having speeded up two practices relating to Esselunga in exchange for illicit financing by Francesco Moncada which materialized with the hidden payment for some electoral commercials on the giant screen of the Primocanale broadcaster.
The president of the Liguria Region is also under investigation for electoral corruption in the context of the investigation into vote swapping as he allegedly had the votes collected by the Riesi community in exchange for jobs counted according to the accusation.
In the long interrogation before prosecutors Luca Monteverde, Federico Manotti and Vittorio Ranieri Miniati Toti had admitted the facts but contested the accusations, claiming in a detailed and detailed manner that he had always acted in the public interest.
