Soumahoro quits Green-Left caucus

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 9 - Migrant labour activist and Italy's only black MP Aboubakar Soumahoro on Monday quit his Green Alliance-Left (AVS) caucus and joined the Lower House's mixed caucus saying he was bitterly disappointed with AVS's lack of support over alleged migrant worker exploitation at two farm cooperatives run by his mother-in-law at Latina south of Rome in a probe which has also implicated his wife.
    Italo-Ivorian Soumahoro, 42, who had already suspended himself from AVS, issued a bulky statement rebutting charges he had himself been at fault.
    Soumahoro, who gained prominence as Italy's leading activist against gangmastering and in favour of migrant labourers rights and trade union organizing, said "I have frankly been astonished and bitterly disappointed that, with the exception of some isolated MP, there has been an absence of human solidarity and political support by the AVS parliamentary caucus".
    In mid-December Soumahoro defended his wife Liliane Murekatete after it emerged that she was among six people being probed in a criminal investigation into migrant-worker cooperatives run by his mother-in-law.
    It was already known that Murekatete's mother, Marie Terese Mukamitsindo, was under investigation over allegations of fraud and exploitation of workers regarding the Karibu and Consorzio Aid cooperatives.
    The case has severely embarrassed Soumahoro.
    The six suspects are accused of involvement in the issuing of false invoices that allegedly enabled Karibu to evade taxes, sources said.
    Investigators seized a total of around 650,000 euro from the suspects - with 639,000 being confiscated from one and 13,000 from two others.
    They said that tax crimes were committed in relation to "invoices for non-existent operations" issued between 2015 and 2019.
    Murekatete said that she had "nothing to do" with any wrongdoing and Soumahoro said he believed her.
    He added that he had nothing to do with the alleged wrongdoing regarding the cooperatives and said he would continue his work to defend the rights of migrant workers.
    Soumahoro, a hero to many, became Italy's only current black MP after the September 25 general election where he was 'parachuted' into a safe Green-Left seat at Modena in Emilia-Romagna.
    He turned up for the first parliamentary session in muddy wellies to highlight the continued plight of the labourers whose rights he has been defending against gangmasters and other forms of exploitation for over a decade.
    Police in Latina, a city founded by Mussolini after he reclaimed the Pomptine Marshes in the 1930s, are going through documents on funding and grants for the two cooperatives run by Mukamitsindo.
    The are sifting them for evidence of unpaid wages and rents, judicial sources said.
    Murekatete also came under fire after pictures of her wearing designer clothes and accessories came out.
    Soumahoro also defended her then, saying she enjoyed "the right to fashion".
    On Monday the MP said he had been "misinterpreted" by people mocking him for that remark and said that "everyone should be entitled to dress as they see fit". (ANSA).