Almasri case, Bartolozzi investigated. Ministry, Court of Cassation and Csm informed

The head of the Cabinet of the Ministry of Justice, Giusi Bartolozzi has been entered in the register of suspects by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, as part of the proceedings in the case of Osama Njeem Almasri, the Libyan commander arrested and then repatriated from Italy last January. Last month, the Court of Ministers sent the request for authorisation to proceed for undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, minister Matteo Piantedosi and the keeper of the judiciary, Carlo Nordio, for the same affair to the Chamber of Deputies.

Launching a technical investigation into the case of the chief of staff of the Ministry of Justice, Giusi Bartolozzi, yesterday entered in the register of suspects in the Almasri case, by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office for false information to the public prosecutor. This was requested by the members of the centre-right majority of the Chamber's Council for Authorisations, through the head of the FdI, Dario Iaia, to verify the possibility that a request for authorisation as a 'lay defendant' could also be made against Bartolozzi. The distinction is represented by the contested crime: if it was 'in concurrence' and not only 'connected' with those relating to ministers and the undersecretary, even Nordio's chief of staff could be judged by the Court of Ministers. According to information, it is not excluded that the centre-right could raise a conflict of attribution before the Constitutional Court.

The prosecutors in Rome are accusing Bartolozz of providing false information to the prosecutor for the statements he made before the judges. The offence alleged by the public prosecutor is 371 bis of the Criminal Code, which punishes 'anyone who, in the course of criminal proceedings, when asked by the public prosecutor or the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to provide information for the purposes of the investigation, makes false statements or withholds, in whole or in part, what he knows about the facts about which he is heard'.

A sentence of up to four years imprisonment is envisaged. According to witnesses and court documents, Bartolozzi played an important role in the management of the dossier opened with the Hague's sending of the arrest warrant for Almasri and the subsequent exchange of communications within the ministry between 19 January, the day of the Libyan general's arrest, and 21 January, the date of his repatriation.

The Ministry of Justice, the Csm and the General Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Cassation have been informed by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office of the inclusion in the register of suspects in the Almasri proceedings of the head of the Cabinet of the Ministry of Via Arenula, Giusi Bartolozzi. The communication took place in recent weeks, in the days following the sending of the documents by the Court of Ministers requesting authorisation to proceed against Nordio, Piantedosi and Undersecretary Mantovano.