Premier Giorgia Meloni, Justice
Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and
Cabinet Secretary with the intelligence brief Alfredo Mantovano
have decided to jointly appoint Giulia Bongiorno as the attorney
representing them in the case of wanted alleged war criminal and
Libyan judicial police commander Najeem Osama Almasri Habish,
well-informed sources said Wednesday.
The choice "highlights the government's unity also in exercising
its right to defence", the sources said.
Bongiorno was seen entering the premier's office at Palazzo
Chigi on Wednesday morning.
Meloni on Tuesday said she had received notice of a probe into
possible aiding and abetting (a crime) and embezzlement of
public funds from Rome chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi and
that the same notice of investigation had been sent to Nordio,
Piantedosi and Mantovano.
The notification was issued after attorney Luigi Li Gotti, a
former cenre-left justice undersecretary and earlier a
neoFascist party member, filed a criminal complaint over the
case, ìn which Almasri was flown back on a State flight to a
hero's welcome in Tripoli, where he allegedly raped and murdered
migrants as young as five since 2015, according to the
International Criminal Court, on whose warrant he was arrested
in Turin two days before being released on a technicality.
The Tribunal of Ministers is set to examine the case to decide
whether to pursue it or shelve it.
Former post-fascist and now rightwing League party Senator
Bongiorno, 58, made her name in her 20s when she defended late
Christian Democrat statesman Giulio Andreotti against charges of
murdering a muckraking journalist, for which he was fully
acquitted, and of helping the mafia, which he was judged to have
done until 1980 but was timed out.
She then went on to defend well-known showbiz clients, such as
Ezio Greggio, Tiziano Ferro, and Simone Pianigiani, in
tax-related criminal proceedings.
Bongiorno was also involved in the acquittal of three Google
executives, including David Drummond and George Reyes of
defamation, in a case involving a video showing students
bullying a handicapped boy.
Her defense of Raffaele Sollecito, a college student, in the
murder trial in Perugia of British exchange student Meredith
Kercher resulted in the acquittal of her client; the subsequent
trials and acquittal of Sollecito's American girlfriend, Amanda
Knox, went on to become a cause célèbre in the United States.
In the wake of the Costa Concordia disaster, she represented
passengers suing the cruise line.
Bongiorno is also known for her work in sports law, representing
clients ranging from fencer Andrea Baldini, to footballers
Cristiano Doni and Francesco Totti.
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