Magistrates mustn't mix up roles-Grasso (2)

(ANSA) - Bari, May 9 - Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso said Monday that Italian magistrates should refrain from making forays into the political arena. His comments echoed those of Giovanni Legnini, the head of the judiciary's self-governing body CSM, who said Sunday that magistrates should not be involved in campaigns for the October referendum to ratify the government's Constitutional reform to revamp Italy's political apparatus. "The judiciary has an important role but it must leave the political arena its place," Grasso said. Legnini spoke amid a row over CSM member Piergiorgio Morosini, who was quoted by Il Foglio newspaper as saying Premier Matteo Renzi "must be stopped" in an alleged campaign against the judiciary - Morosini denied having said this.
    Grasso, a member of Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and Italy's former chief anti-mafia prosecutor, said his case was different. "I made a choice to change," he said. "I resigned from the judiciary and now I'm on politics".