Toti, mole: file opened for disclosure. Spinelli lawyer: money to all but thought it was traced

The public prosecutor's office has opened a file for disclosure of official secrets as part of the investigation into the business and corruption committee that led to the arrest of Liguria Regional President Giovanni Toti. The file, charged to unknown persons, was registered in light of what emerged from the environmental interceptions.

It is 30 September 2020. The brothers Arturo Angelo Testa and Italo Maurizio Testa, members of Forza Italia in Lombardy and since yesterday suspended from the party, come to Genoa to meet with some people from the riesina community. At the meeting, a man in a sweatshirt and cap approaches them. "He is recognised as Umberto Lo Grasso (a Tottian councillor). Who says to Italo Testa: "You see they are investigating, don't mention names and don't talk on the phone ..... They are investigating'. In reply Italo Maurizio Testa says: 'yes I know, don't worry ..... I stutato ('switched off' in Sicilian dialect, ed.)'. This conduct, writes the judge for preliminary investigations Paola Faggioni, 'thus appears to constitute the crime of aiding and abetting, since the aforementioned - by warning the Testa brothers not to talk on the phone since they were being investigated ("they are investigating") - provided an aid to the aforementioned to evade the investigations against them'. But who warned Lo Grasso? One hypothesis is that there is indeed a mole, since Stefano Anzalone, also a Tototian and a suspect in the investigation, is a former policeman who therefore has connections in the police force. The other hypothesis is that it could be some sort of bragging by Anzalone himself, who wanted to get the Testa brothers out of the way after the elections and not honour promises made in exchange for votes.

"Spinelli said he financed everyone but with electoral subscriptions that he thought were traced". This was said by Aldo Spinelli's lawyer Vernazza this morning in front of the Palace of Justice in Genoa, adding that he will appeal 'to the re-examination because we do not have such an afflictive measure, we are not in jail'. The entrepreneur Spinelli is at the centre of the Genoa investigation that has also put governor Toti under house arrest. Asked whether a broken electoral promise can still constitute the crime of illegal financing, Vernazza replied that 'there is also the crime of fraud to make hypotheses... there is something to discuss. We do not put a limit on defences'.

'I have said it all, I deserve freedom'. These are the words pronounced yesterday by Spinelli, after the interrogation before the gip. But his son Roberto dumped him: 'Dad did everything, I didn't agree to spend money on politics'. A file has also been opened on a maxi-fraud of over one million on health supplies during Covid. In front of the gip Paola Faggioni, in addition to Aldo and Roberto Spinelli, Francesco Moncada, former board member of Esselunga, who is the addressee of a prohibitory measure, appeared.

"Don't let me comment on the enquiries. I hope that justice will give answers to the people of Genoa. I am interested, but this applies to Taranto as it does to Genoa, as it does to Bari, that judicial enquiries do not stop the development of cities. If someone is accused of something that emerges, it is not enough for a wiretap, a suspicion, a doubt, a page in the newspapers to condemn someone because in a civilised country you are guilty if you are condemned in the courts. The important thing is that we do not block the development of cities, we do not block the development of Puglia, we do not block the development of Liguria'. So said the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, speaking to journalists in Taranto on the sidelines of the inauguration of the start of the construction phase of the rolling stock depot for the Bus rapid transit (BRT) network.