The investigation

Vote of exchange, mafia and corruption, 11 arrests in Sicily. The Leghist vice-president of the Region is suspended. A turncoat: "He was at a meeting with a boss".

Among those arrested is the mayor of Tremestieri Etneo, Santi Rando. Under house arrest his political opponent, Mario Ronsisvalle, later his ally

by Redaction Rome

17 April 2024

Sicilia, voto di scambio e corruzione: sospeso vicepresidente Regione

7' min read

Key points

Who is Sammartino
Corra turncoat: Sammartino met a boss
"Business degeneration"
Gip: Sammartino prone to commit crimes
Schifani will take over Sammartino's delegation ad interim
Sammartino remains MP if Severino law is not activated
Contracts to friends, also for Arma Barracks
One of the commissioners in Bari is uncle of suspended Sicily deputy governor

7' min read

Carabinieri of the Catania provincial command are executing a precautionary measure order against 11 people, including politicians, municipal officials and entrepreneurs accused, for various reasons, of mafia political electoral exchange, extortion aggravated by the mafia method, aggravated corruption, incitement to corruption and disruption of public tenders. Among those arrested is the mayor of Tremestieri Etneo, Santi Rando. Under house arrest was his political opponent, Mario Ronsisvalle, later his ally. Suspended from public duties for one year the vice-president of the Region Luca Sammartino (League).

Who is Sammartino

The Vice President of the Region Luca Sammartino, who is also Regional Councillor for Agriculture and is one of the leading members of the League in Sicily, is under investigation for corruption. And for this offence he has been suspended by the gip for one year from exercising public functions. The order was issued as part of investigations by the Carabinieri investigation unit of the Catania provincial command conducted between 2018 and 2021 and coordinated by the Etna district prosecutor's office. The investigation, called Pandora, allegedly revealed illicit agreements between some administrators of the Tremestieri Etneo municipality and elements close to the Santaopaola-Ercolano mafia gang, concerning the election in 2015 of the current mayor Santi Rando, recipient of a remand order in prison for political-mafia electoral exchange and aggravated corruption.

Corra repentant: Sammartino met a boss

Luca Sammartino is alleged to have met leading members of the Santapaola clan in 2015. This was reconstructed by collaborator Silvio Corra whose statements, some on facts learned directly and others 'de relato', are considered reliable by the Catania Public Prosecutor's Office. Corra had joined Cosa Nostra in 2004 thanks to his kinship with his brother-in-law Angelo Santapaola, who was in charge of the association until his murder in September 2007. After his release from prison in 2013, he had become a trusted man of the regent of the time, Francesco 'Colluccio' Santapaola, and managed the so-called 'extortion card'. He started to cooperate with justice on August Ferragosto day in 2020, while he was free. In the precautionary measure, the Prosecutor's Office reconstructs an episode in which Corra had personally accompanied the top member of the mafia association, Francesco 'Colluccio' Santapaola, to Vito Romeo's house for meetings between them and political exponents, and in particular the candidate for mayor of Tremestieri Etneo, Santi Rando, a brother-in-law of Romeo and another person whose physical description he gave, but of whom he knew nothing else. Corra added that on a couple of occasions at these meetings he had also seen another person arrive who, 'in the photo album shown to him, he recognised in the photograph showing Sammartino's effigy, but whose name he did not know', recalling that he had seen him once or twice. Corra did not attend the meeting, but would later learn from Romeo that they would support the mayoral candidate who would bring them 'jobs and money'.

"Business degeneration"

Further investigations would shed light on what the Public Prosecutor's Office defines as "the subsequent 'business degeneration' of the Authority, implemented by unfaithful officials through numerous corrupt practices, in order to grant permits and assign works to 'friendly entrepreneurs'". It would also emerge, according to the prosecution's reconstruction, 'a strategy of the municipal management' aimed at 'neutralising all forms of political opposition'. For the prosecution it would have been 'the corruptive agreement with the historic opposition councillor Mario Ronsivalle, who later became one of Rando's supporters for the 2021 local elections'. Ronsisvalle, owner of a pharmacy in Tremestieri, contends the Prosecutor's Office, 'also thanks to the intervention of Luca Rosario Sammartino, the mayor's main political referent, at the time of the facts regional deputy and current vice-president of the Region, would have been advantaged through the reduction of the number of pharmacies present in the municipal organic plan, promising in exchange the electoral support, for the 2019 European elections, to the candidate supported by Sammartino'.

Gip: Sammartino prone to commit crimes

'Undoubtedly alarming and indicative of a personality inclined to commit criminal acts is the behaviour of the suspect, directed towards seeking information on the existence of investigations against him, even instigating others to commit crimes in order to provide him with it,' writes the Catania gip, Carla Aurora Valenti, on the vice-president of the Region Luca Sammartino. The judge also emphasised 'the seriousness of the bribery offences committed, Sammartino's ability to heavily influence the choices of the Tremestieri Etneo municipal administration (for example, the imposition of votes on the municipal councillors Smecca Ferdinando and Giancarlo Torre), his sharing in the project that would have altered the rules of an honest electoral competition, a project in whose implementation he actively collaborated, also drawing personal benefits, and his intervention with regional officials that was fundamental for the illicit result targeted'.

Schifani will take over Sammartino's delegation ad interim

The President of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, will take over the proxies of the regional councillor Luca Sammartino, who has been suspended from public office for a year after receiving a notice of indictment for aggravated corruption as part of an operation by the Catania carabinieri. The news filtered from Palazzo d'Orleans after Sammartino was reached at dawn by the measure. The charge concerns the period when Sammartino was still militating in the PD, in 2019. Meanwhile, Sammartino explains: 'I have written a note to the president of the Region, Renato Schifani, to resign as regional councillor and vice-president of the Region after being reached by interdictory precautionary measure in relation to a crime hypothesis that is far away in time. I thank the President for the trust he has shown in me and for the work done so far'. 'I would like to emphasise,' he adds, 'that I am not involved in any mafia or vote-for-trade crime hypothesis. I am serene and certain that my total extraneousness to the facts, dating back five years, which I read with amazement are contested against me, will emerge. I remain confident, as I have always declared and will never change my mind, in the work of the judiciary. I will continue to serve my community and my territory by carrying out my political activity and as a regional parliamentarian,' Sammartino concludes.

Sammartino remains deputy if Severino law is not activated

The Catania gip's decision to suspend Luca Sammartino, who is under investigation for corruption, from public office for one year with a ban on all inherent activities could allow the politician, who has already handed over his government delegations to President Renato Schifani, to remain a member of the Sicilian Assembly: this scenario would happen if the judge decides not to send the order to the state commissioner for the Sicilian Region. If, on the other hand, the file was sent, it would be up to the commissioner, after having read the entire order, to assess whether or not the conditions exist to trigger the provisions of the Severino law and, in this case, the procedure envisages sending the report to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers for the decree and the subsequent transmission of the decree to the commissioner of the State, then sending it to the offices of the Sicilian Regional Assembly and the activation of the commission for verification of powers for the suspension of the deputy and the temporary replacement with the first of the non-elected in the Catania list. The office of regional deputy, being an elective office, would not, according to one interpretation, be included among the 'public offices' from which Sammartino, by decision of the Catania gip, was suspended for one year. The offence of corruption, contested to the Lega Nord politician, concerns the previous legislature: at that time Sammartino was still a regional deputy but of the PD.

Contracts to friends, also for Arma Barracks

The Catania public prosecutor's investigation into the municipality of Tremestieri Etneo also brought to light 'the detailed planning of numerous corrupt practices, which allegedly involved public officials Rando and Giovanni Naccarato, manager of the Public Works and Territory-Urban Planning Department, as well as Cosentino, and Puccio Monaco, an architect and at the time of the events a free consultant to the mayor'. According to the indictment, the 'corrupt officials would have received money and other various benefits, almost always thanks to the constant and 'professional' intermediation activity of the engineer Paolo Di loreto, to grant permits and assign works to friendly entrepreneurs'. Among the recipients of the precautionary measure, carried out by the Carabinieri as part of the Pandora operation, there are also 'four entrepreneurs, one of whom died of natural causes, who allegedly benefited, in exchange for money and other utilities illegally bestowed on public officials, from the granting of municipal permits and public works assignments, and even just promises, as in the case of the contract for the renovation of the local Carabinieri barracks, which never came to fruition'. Elements have been acquired that, the Prosecutor's Office reconstructs, 'would seem to delineate a strategy of the Tremestieri Etneo Municipality's top management aimed at neutralising any form of political opposition, going so far as to favour the historic opposition councillor Mario Ronsisvalle, who then became, thanks also to the intervention of the then regional deputy Luca Sammartino, one of Rando's supporters for the 2021 local elections'. As part of the same order, the Gip reserved the right to decide on the position of a Carabiniere in active service who, in exchange for money, allegedly helped Sammartino to carry out technical remediation activities in search of bugs in his offices. The Gip will decide after questioning him on the request for the application of the prohibitory measure of suspension from exercising a public office or service requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office for the Carabiniere.

One of the commissioners in Bari is a suspended vice-governor of Sicily

Luca Sammartino, an exponent of the League and vice-president of the Sicilian Region, is the nephew of retired prefect Claudio Sammartino, one of the members of the access commission appointed by the Viminale to assess possible mafia infiltration in the Municipality of Bari. Claudio Sammartino was prefect of Catania. Apparently, there were no customary relations between uncle and nephew, only family acquaintances.