Garlasco: corruption charges against former public prosecutor Venditti have been dropped; he did not show favouritism towards Sempio

The investigating judge at the Court of Brescia has granted the request by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, headed by Francesco Prete, to dismiss the case against the former deputy public prosecutor of Pavia, Mario Venditti, who was accused of corruption in judicial proceedings for allegedly accepting money to facilitate the dismissal of Andrea Sempio in the investigation into the murder of Chiara Poggi, who was murdered in Garlasco on 13 August 2007. The allegations against other individuals remain unchanged; for this reason, the case files will be transferred to Pavia.

According to the prosecution’s theory – which has now been dismissed – Mario Venditti is alleged to have received money from Sempio’s family in exchange for dismissing the case against him in 2017 in connection with the murder of Chiara Poggi. A handwritten note found at Sempio’s parents’ home had come under the scrutiny of the public prosecutor’s office; it read: ‘Venditti, investigating magistrate, drops case for 20–30 euros’. This note was interpreted as the price of the ‘deal’: 20–30 thousand euros paid to the former deputy prosecutor to have Andrea Sempio removed from the investigation and, therefore, from the list of suspects.

That was when the investigations into the current accounts of the Sempio family began, along with the wiretaps, in one of which Giuseppe Sempio, Andrea’s father, spoke of the need to ‘pay those gentlemen over there’. For the family, the sums mentioned in the note were those relating to part of Sempio’s legal fees. Mario Venditti has always firmly rejected any allegations of corruption: a request had been made to dismiss the case in the absence of serious evidence against the suspect.