Rome city personnel chief
Raffaele Marra, the right-hand man of Mayor Virginia Raggi, was
arrested on Friday in relation to a corruption probe, sources
said.
The investigation regards real-estate transactions in 2013
when Marra was an official under a former administration in the
capital.
Carabinieri police on Friday searched the city-hall office of
Marra after his arrest, sources said.
The case is another embarrassment for Raggi and her
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which prides itself on
not being tainted by the corruption scandals that have hit other
political parties.
Earlier this week Raggi accepted the resignation of her
former environment chief Paola Muraro after she was notified she
was under investigation over alleged of unlawful waste treatment
during her years as a consultant for city trash company AMA.
On Wednesday police seized documents from city hall in
relation to probe into nominations made by Raggi since she was
elected in June.
The mayor said Thursday she has "nothing to hide" over her
appointments.
The presence of Marra, who for a spell was Raggi's deputy
chief of staff, in the new administration had already caused
unease among many in the M5S due to his links with Rome's former
centre-right mayor Gianni Alemanno.
Construction and real-estate businessman Sergio Scarpellini
was also arrested in relation to the same probe as Marra on
Friday.
Scarpellini is suspected of corrupting officials to gain
advantages for his businesses, sources said.
Marra allegedly bought an apartment belonging to the Enasarco
foundation for sales representatives in June 2013 with cheques
linked to accounts of the real-estate businessman, according to
the sources.
The Raggi administration's ability to address a range of big
problems faced by the capital, including poor public transport,
urban degradation and major issues with trash management, are
widely seen as a big test of the M5S's ambitions to present
itself as an viable alternative government at the national
level.
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