The judge for preliminary investigations Paola Faggioni rejected the request to revoke the house arrest for the Ligurian governor Giovanni Toti , arrested on May 7th as part of the investigation by the Genoese prosecutor's office on charges of corruption, vote-swapping and false. Toti's lawyer, Stefano Savi, had filed the request on 10 June asking for the measure to be revoked or, alternatively, to be attenuated.

The investigating judge, in the order rejecting the application, specifies "that the precautionary need connected to the concrete and current danger of recurrence of similar criminal conduct remains". «In this regard - writes Faggioni - we note, first of all, the same methods of the contested criminal conduct as emerged during the investigations, from which the systematic nature of the corruption mechanism reiterated over a considerable period of time clearly emerges. On the occasion and in conjunction with each of the four electoral competitions that followed one another during the time span of this investigation (approximately 18 months) - administrative elections of Savona (October 2021), administrative elections of Genoa (June 2022) national political elections (25 September 2022) and the administrative elections of Ventimiglia and Sarzana (May 2023) - the suspect, pressured by the need to raise funds to face the electoral campaign, made his function, his powers and his role available, in favor of private interests, in exchange for funding, promised and actually delivered. This mechanism was ascertained with reference to two different entrepreneurs, the Spinellis and Moncada".

Not only that, the risk of evidential pollution also remains "in a current and concrete way", writes investigating judge Faggioni in the order. «The investigations - we read - are in full swing and, in particular, hearings are underway with officials and managers of the Liguria Region who are aware of the facts being investigated, who could well be subject to conditioning or pressure from the suspect to make a convenient reconstruction of events ". This risk "clearly appears particularly high where the suspect resumes the exercise of the functions performed" continues the judge who reports an episode which in his opinion is "significant". «It highlights, in particular, the elusive behavior carried out by Toti - continues the judge - during the investigations, in which he always tried to choose "reserved" places (the Spinellis' boat or Spinelli Aldo's house) in order to exchange mutual requests for favors, avoiding addressing certain topics in public. Also particularly significant are the precautions adopted during the meetings on the boat, which took place after removing all the interlocutors' telephones, as directly observed by the Financial Police, a method also adopted on the occasion of the meeting with the entrepreneur Moncada inside the 'office of the President of the Region'.

Furthermore, when the meetings took place in public places, Faggioni writes, " locales that were less frequented or in any case suitable to elude investigative checks were specifically chosen. On this point, by way of example, mention can be made of the conversation held on 03.10.2021 by Giovanni Toti with Signorini to meet the following day and during which the former justified the choice of the venue ("Le Cicale - Bistrot" of Albaro, of Piazza Leopardi) because, as well as being little frequented, it would have been more difficult to be heard due to the traffic noise present there ("If it doesn't rain we'll go outside at Le Cicale in Albaro because there's that little square where they brought me with you a time... there's space, no one bothers us and we can talk... cars pass by, there's background noise...")».

Also weighing on the rejection of the request to revoke house arrest for Toti are some WhatsApp chats found by the Financial Police during the forensic copy. An example is the one between the president and his secretary Marcella Mirafiori and reported in the rejection order by judge Paola Faggioni. From that conversation, the judge writes, «it is understood that Toti, between 23 and 24 March 2023, had gone to the Principality of Monaco to spend a short holiday and that, among the scheduled commitments, there was a lunch with Aldo Spinelli. On 03.24.2023, upon returning to Liguria, the suspect informed Mirafiori of Spinelli's willingness to join the fundraising dinner, paying the amount for the participation of 10 people (equal, therefore, to 4,500 euros, taking into account that the minimum amount per person was 450 euros)". «Particularly significant is the fact that, during the aforementioned conversation, Toti - evidently on the basis of prior agreements again with Spinelli - referred to a sum that he would have received from Spinelli, in addition to the "official" one for participation in the electoral dinner ("Spinelli told me that it makes 10 places. Then the rest... we'll adjust"), using an expression ("the rest") frequently used by both Toti and Spinelli to refer, in an allusive way, to the utility that is the subject of the corruption agreements".

And again, says the investigating judge «think of the conversation - mentioned in the precautionary order - held between Giovanni Toti, immediately after the meeting which took place on Spinelli's boat on 01/09/2021, with Mirafiori, during which the informed Spinelli's intentions to make a payment ("Send Spinelli's secretariat the documents where we want him to make a payment, which will make it normal, like everyone else..." and "get them to tell you who it is. .. so you do it and then after the rest I'll tell you verbally)".

(Unioneonline/D)

© Riproduzione riservata