(by Stefania Fumo).Agriculture
Undersecretary Giuseppe Castiglione, a member of the New Centre
Right (NCD) party, is among six people under investigation by
Catania prosecutors for alleged bid-rigging related to the Cara
di Mineo migrant reception centre in Sicily.
The probe is an offshoot of the so-called Mafia Capitale
investigation in Rome, the last chapter of which saw 44 people
arrested on Thursday for alleged involvement in the plundering
of public money destined for migrant reception centres.
"For the second time in six months, I find out through the
press that I may be probed for alleged involvement in the Cara
di Mineo affair," Castiglione said.
"I have not received any notification that I am under
investigation".
La Cascina managers Domenico Cammissa, Salvatore
Menolascina, Carmelo Parabita and Francesco Ferrara are all
under arrest for allegedly promising a 10,000-euro monthly
"stipend" to Luca Odevaine - former deputy head of cabinet of
ex-center-left Rome mayor Walter Veltroni - in exchange for
"subjugating his function as a public official" to the interests
of the La Cascina cooperative, which manages the Cara di Mineo
migrant reception center.
In the capital, meanwhile, a preliminary investigations
judge began questioning the suspects arrested on Thursday.
These included Mirko Coratti, the former Rome council
assembly president from the center-left Democratic Party (PD) of
Premier Matteo Renzi, and Daniele Ozzimo, a former member of PD
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino's city executive.
"I have committed no crime and I especially have never had
any illicit relationship with Salvatore Buzzi," Coratti told the
judge.
"There is no evidence we ever spoke on the phone".
Coratti stepped down in November last year after being
placed under investigation along with some 100 others in the
probe into an alleged mafia organisation that prosecutors said
rigged public contracts in Rome.
The crime syndicate was allegedly led by former rightwing
terrorist and gangster Massimo Carminati - who is behind bars -
and was made up of businessmen, politicians, and high-level
officials.
Carminati and his suspected right-hand man Salvatore Buzzi
- whom prosecutors say acted as a go-between, connecting the
gangster with the politicians - were arrested last year in a
sweep that netted more than three dozen suspects in the
so-called Mafia Capitale case.
Former center-right mayor Gianni Alemanno is among those
under investigation.
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