Toti reaches plea deal with Genoa prosecutors

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 13 - Former Liguria governor Giovanni Toti has found an agreement with the State attorney's office to plea bargain a suspended sentence of two years and one month in jail, in a surprise move over a corruption probe that has shaken Liguria's regional government, judicial sources said Friday.
    The decision now goes to a preliminary hearings judge (GUP) who will schedule a hearing on the case.
    Under the agreement, Toti would perform a period of probation of 1,500 hours to carry out socially useful services.
    State attorneys and Toti's defence lawyer Stefano Savi also agreed that Toti would be temporarily not allowed to serve in public office nor enter into contracts with the public administration for the whole duration of the term.
    Assets worth 84,100 euros would also be seized from Toti under the deal.
    The plea bargain concerned charges of corruption and illicit financing.
    Commenting the agreement on Friday, Toti said that, one the one hand, he felt "bitterness" for not being able to prove his "innocence and, on the other, relief for seeing it recognized in good part". Toti was placed under house arrest in May in relation to a corruption probe regarding alleged bribes in which cash for an election campaign was exchanged for favours, including the extension of a port terminal concession.
    He was subsequently released from detention after he resigned as governor in July.
    And on Friday the former chairman of the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority Paolo Emilio Signorini also reached a deal with prosecutors to plea bargain a prison term of three years and five months and the seizure of just over 100,000 euros as well as a temporary ban on public office in the corruption case.
    In this case as well, a preliminary hearings judge will need to accept the request.
    Regional elections will be held in Liguria on October 27-28.
    (ANSA).