Anas contracts: Verdini to stand trial in Rome

The preliminary hearing judge in Rome has committed former MP Denis Verdini for trial in connection with the proceedings relating to contracts awarded by ANAS, in which he is charged with corruption in collusion with others. At the end of the deliberations, the judge also ordered a plea bargain, to be served consecutively, of two years and ten months for Verdini’s son, Tommaso. One of the accused managers, Domenico Petruzzelli, was sentenced in a summary trial to one year and four months and acquitted of the charge of bid-rigging. The Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office’s closing statement reads: “In return for making their positions available,” certain suspects “accepted promises of benefits from Denis Verdini and his son, consisting of their intervention and recommendations in political and institutional forums to secure confirmation in senior positions at Anas or, in any case, placement in well-paid senior roles within public-law bodies’’. Anas is also a civil party in these proceedings, represented by lawyers Giorgio Perroni and Bruno Andò. “We are satisfied with the acquittal handed down for the offence of bid-rigging,” commented Petruzzelli’s defence lawyers, Gianluca Tognozzi and Nunzia De Ceglie - ‘While we await the grounds for the judgment, we are confident of clearing the charge of improper corruption before the Court of Appeal.’ For Denis Verdini and the other defendants committed for trial, the trial has been set for 16 September before the Second Criminal Division.