Liguria: Toti also charged with perjury. Spinelli's interrogation skipped

Liguria President Giovanni Toti is also under investigation for forgery. The accusation emerges from the papers of the investigation that has shaken the Liguria Region, bringing the governor to domicile. The crime hypothesis is linked to the management of landfills in the province of Savona. For that affair Pietro Colucci, an entrepreneur from Campania who manages a galaxy of companies dealing with waste, is under investigation for corruption.

A new line of investigation is in the sights of investigators looking into corruption in Liguria. It still concerns the port of Genoa, the relocation of the chemical warehouses of the Superba and Carmagnani companies from the Genoa-Multedo area in the west of the city to the Calata Sanità port area in Sampierderana. It is assessed that the final decisions were arrived at after pressure on the members of the regional technical committee that had to give the decisive go-ahead. The Public Prosecutor's Office, as indicated by several newspapers, is hypothesising the crimes of abuse of office, undue induction to give or promise benefits, and trafficking in influence. In recent days, moreover, the Regional Administrative Tribunal has defined the operation as illegitimate. It is supported by mayor Marco Bucci, who as mayor-commissioner for reconstruction has earmarked 30 million of the Genoa Decree allocated after the Morandi massacre for its implementation. It is instead opposed by residents who have formed a committee. In the crosshairs is the regional technical committee (Ctr), which had been called upon to give the final OK and which had twice denied the feasibility permit for safety reasons. Both the fire brigade and the regional environmental agency Arpal had doubts. But at a certain point the opinion had been changed and the go-ahead had arrived with some constraints. Deputy Prosecutor Vittorio Ranieri Miniati, coordinator of the pool of magistrates dealing with crimes against the public administration, is in charge of the case.

"Dr Cozzani denied the charges against him but did not go into the merits given the amount of documents to be studied," he said. This was said by Massimo Ceresa Gastaldo, lawyer of the former chief of staff, at the end of the interrogation before the gip. "He explained that the precautionary needs no longer exist since he is no longer chief of cabinet. And that he will resign as soon as the house arrest is revoked'. Cozzani, the lawyer concluded, 'has shown maximum willingness to clarify with the prosecutors at a later date'.

The interrogation of Aldo Spinelli, the logistics entrepreneur arrested (under house arrest) as part of a wide-ranging bribery investigation, was skipped because his lawyers Andrea Vernazza and Paolo Gatto did not receive the summons by pec from the chancellery of the judge for preliminary investigations. The proceedings were adjourned to Monday, 13 May. "The lawyers are not there, they left me alone," Spinelli explained. Then to those who asked him what he thought of the accusations levelled against him, he replied, "But look, bad don't do bad don't have". And to a question about Signorini he replied 'Signorini? a friend'.

Meanwhile, a note dated 9 May from the Genoa Public Prosecutor's Office, District Anti-Mafia Directorate. explains that "with reference to the news spread by some media outlets in relation to the execution of the precautionary custody order issued on 6 May 2024 by the G.I.P. of the Court of Genoa, according to which the enforcement of the precautionary measure against the President of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti would have taken place at 3.00 a.m. on 7 May 2024, the Public Prosecutor's Office believes it is right to point out that, as it appears from the records, the Judicial Police Officers of the Genoa Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) in charge of the investigation started their operations after 7.00 a.m. According to what emerges from the documents,' the document goes on to say, 'the operations were carried out in full compliance with the law and the dignity of the person'.