[ad_1]
Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi was acquitted of the forgery charge as part of the appeals process for the appointment of Renato Marra, brother of former Capitol Chief of Staff Raffaele, head of the Rome City Council’s tourism department. The appointment was then withdrawn. The decision was made after about two hours in the office. In the first instance, Raggi was acquitted with the formula “because the act does not constitute a crime” but the Public Ministry appealed in the second instance. Pg Emma D’Ortona had asked for a prison sentence of ten months.
The sentence was greeted with applause. The first citizen hugged her husband, present in the courtroom, along with a dozen councilors from the Capitol.
Ray absolution, two reasons for joy. Now the mayor’s answer goes to the polls
by Stefano Cappelliini
“This is a victory for me and my staff, for the people who have been by my side in these four long years of political but not human solitude. I think that many should reflect, also and especially within the 5-Star Movement. Now it is too easy to want to try to jump on the winner’s bandwagon with words of circumstance after years of silence. Those with a clear conscience will not be offended by these words, but many others, at least today we have the decency to be silent. If they really want to say or do something, they send resources and the tools to use them to the Romans and to my city. There is a budget law to demonstrate with the facts that they want to do politics. The rest is quackery, ”Raggi commented. “Today Virginia Raggi was acquitted. Once again. Keep resisting great woman, the 5 Star Movement resists with you,” Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote in a post on Facebook. “Virginia was acquitted. Once again acquitted. Now she begins to respect her. For four years she was defamed, mocked, slandered … She was beaten by the political and media system for not having supported the Olympics of Malagò, Montezemolo and Caltagirone and the fire a friend started by those who will never be up to it but who do not want to accept it, “wrote M5 exponent Alessandro Di Battista on Facebook.
The first citizen of Rome has repeatedly described herself as “serene” and, near the sentence, she had specified that even in case of conviction “she will continue with her head held high.”
Rome, Lombardi v. Raggi on the eve of sentencing: “Resign if convicted”
by Lorenzo D’Albergo
The judgment concerns the appointment of Renato Marra, Raffaele’s brother, as head of the Tourism Management Office. At the center of the investigation was a note that the mayor had written to the Anti-Corruption Capitol requesting clarification on the role played by Raffaele Marra, at that time Chief of Staff, in the appointment of his brother. Virginia Raggi responded that that decision had been made by her and that the role of number one in human resources had been “a mere and slavish execution of the decisions that I made.”
Roma, Raggi: “I am honest, if they condemn me I will go ahead. I will apply again decidedly.” Resignation of the brigade commander? “Forward on this too”
The prosecutor, however, on the phone of Raffaele Marra (later arrested for corruption in December 2016), had found conversations that seemed to deny that version. Specifically, the one in which the mayor, a target of the press for that promotion and the consequent increase of 20 thousand euros in salary, complained to the chief of staff that she had not informed her. And for this he had requested (and obtained) the accusation for falsification.
Rays in trial for falsification, the appeal sentence scheduled for today postponed to Saturday
by Maria Elena Vincenzi
Virginia Raggi, who had been acquitted in the first instance on November 10, 2018, has always repeated, even five days ago in the Court of Appeal, that it was she who decided. Last Monday he said in court that he “did not understand, did not know” that Marra was conspiring. And of that misunderstanding, the trial judge had acquitted her for believing that she did not know that she was committing a forgery because she did not know how hard her chief of staff had tried to promote her brother.
