Rome - A Rome court was due Thursday to issue verdicts in a
political corruption trial that hinges on the alleged collusion
between the Italian capital's establishment and a Mafia-type criminal
association.
Judges were due to rule against 46 defendants in the so-called Mafia
Capitale case, including the alleged leaders of Rome's criminal
underworld, one-eyed former neo-Fascist Massimo Carminati, and
Salvatore Buzzi, a murder convict with political links to the left.
Prosecutors have asked for jail terms of 28 years for Carminati and
of 26 years and three months for Buzzi, arguing they should be found
guilty of Mafia-type collusion, a crime that carries very stiff
sentences in Italy.
Other notable figures on trial for Mafia crimes include Franco
Panzironi, former head of Rome's garbage collection utility, and Luca
Gramazio, former speaker in Rome's regional parliament for the
conservative Forza Italia party of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The Mafia Capitale case broke in December 2014, when Carminati and
Buzzi were arrested. Police accused them of masterminding a racket
that controlled key municipal services, like garbage collection, park
maintenance and refugee centres, through bribes and intimidation.
A paper pasted by policemen at the door of Italian restaurant "Rotonda" inform clients after it was closed as part of an anti-mafia operation near the Pantheon in Rome. Picture: Tiziana Fabi/Reuters
The scandal engulfed cross-party figures, including former right-wing
mayor Gianni Alemanno, for whom Mafia charges were dropped but is
facing a separate trial for corruption and illegal party funding, and
several less famous figures of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
Then PD-mayor Ignazio Marino was not personally involved, but the
case contributed to his early downfall, triggered by internal
PD feuds, and paved the way for last year's historic local election
win by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.