No to the authorization to access the chats of the former Undersecretary of Justice Andrea Delmastro with Mauro Caroccia, alleged frontman of the Senese clan. This was decided by the Chamber floor, by secret ballot, with 206 yes and 133 no votes on the Authorization Committee’s report, approved by majority, which denies the authorization requested by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office to access the correspondence between the deputy and Caroccia.
The Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office had requested to acquire the chats as part of the investigation into the Bisteccheria d’Italia, the Roman establishment of which Delmastro was a partner along with other Fdi members and Caroccia’s daughter, 19-year-old Miriam. The Caroccias are under investigation for money laundering and fictitious ownership of assets, aggravated by mafia facilitation. According to the magistrates, that restaurant would have managed the illicit proceeds of the Senese clan.
Chaos after the vote, with M5s deputies leaving their seats to go under the majority benches with their cell phones raised (the Movement’s campaign #fuorilechat). At that point, shouts, protests, and chants arose and the session was suspended.
Meanwhile, the opposition would be considering raising a conflict of jurisdiction before the Constitutional Court. “They used a guarantee body to help the Camorra and defend a party friend. It is disgusting,” fired Daniela Torto of M5s. Before the vote, Elisabetta Piccolotti of Avs had also spoken: “None of us can say for sure that Delmastro was not doing business with the Camorra. Until we access the chats, we cannot know: the majority is doing everything to prevent it, it is an absolute shame…”. And again: “The Prosecutor wrote black on white that those chats are important to ascertain the crimes, indispensable not only to accuse but also to defend the defendants in the trial. We are facing a disturbing picture in which the majority has nothing better to do than prevent the judiciary from investigating the mafia. You use a procedural loophole to block investigations, what are you afraid of? You cannot keep the box closed.” “We maintain that it is not possible to close the eyes of Italians, you cannot blindfold Italy, open the box,” Piccolotti added, while her colleagues were blindfolding their eyes in protest.
Delmastro, Appendino insults Meloni and La Russa: “The mafia is disgusting, but so are you”
“The fact that the right voted not to allow the Prosecutor access to the conversations between Delmastro and Carroccia, …
“In this case, the constitutional prerogative cannot be invoked, the Constitution recognizes essential prerogatives to parliamentarians, but these are guarantees to be exercised with seriousness and rigor, they cannot become shields that limit investigative freedom. The majority’s stance is a mistake before being a legal one, it is political: here Parliament is asked not to prevent justice from doing its job, thus weakening citizens’ trust in institutions. An ordinary citizen must comply with the law’s rules, yet they see that the law applies differently for some. Anti-mafia is credible when it becomes institutional behavior,” said the Five Star member Carla Giuliano.
From the PD, here is Gianassi: “If the Prosecutor, who fights the mafia, tells the Chamber that without that documentation there is a risk of blocking a trial against the mafia, then the Chamber should give its positive opinion. Aggravating the situation was the violation of parliamentary prerogatives, the documents submitted to the Committee were not accessible. I will not dwell on Delmastro’s bluff, who does not tell us about the people he is in partnership with, does not resign until news comes out in the press, and then asks his party to decide on his chats. Faced with this scenario, we must say very clearly that we allow that verification, we must say yes to the authorization, these guarantees were written to protect the democratic freedoms of parliamentarians, not to help a parliamentarian who becomes a partner of the barely adult daughter of a mafia suspect, frontman of the Senese clan.”
