The supreme Court of Cassation on
Tuesday reversed a lower court's verdict and ruled that the
people convicted in the huge 'Mondo di Mezzo' (Middle World)
corruption case in Rome were not guilty of mafia association.
As a result the sentences of the two ringleaders of the gang,
which got its hands city contracts worth millions, ranging from
the running of Roma and migrant camps to waste management and
maintaining green areas, will have to be re-calculated.
At the appeals level, former gangster and ex-member of the
NAR right-wing terrorist group Massimo Carminati was given a
term of 14 years and six months.
The term of leftwing cooperatives chief Salvatore Buzzi was
18 years, four months.
The case was initially nicknamed 'Capital Mafia' after
prosecutors said it regarded organized crime.
In the first sentence, judges had aid there were two separate
criminal organisations in the case and they were not mafia-like
in nature.
But the appeals verdict said had mafia association was
involved, before the supreme court reversed that reversal.
The ringleaders were caught on a wiretap saying they could
make more on Roma and migrant camps than from drugs.
Mondo di Mezzo refers to Carminati's nickname for the
demi-monde he operated in.
Some former members of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD)
were also involved in the 'Mondo di Mezzo' case and in February
former centre-right Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno got six years for
illegal financing corruption in a separate case linked to it.
In Italy sentences do not usually become effective until the
appeals process has been exhausted.
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