“No pact with the ‘Ndrangheta”: the precautionary measure for the former mayor of Casabona canceled

There was no electoral pact between the former mayor of Casabona, the municipality of the Crotone hinterland, and a local gang of ‘Ndrangheta. This was established by the Court of the Review of Catanzaro which today has fully canceled the ordinance with which the district investigating judge had ordered for Francesco seminar The precautionary custody in prison on charges of external competition in mafia association and political-mafia electoral exchange. A decision adopted following the sentence of the Cassation which last April canceled a previous judgment by the Review Court with which the charge of external competition had been considered, but confirmed that of voting for exchange. At that juncture, in October last year, the seminar had been released and subjected to house arrest. The former first citizen had been arrested in the context of the “Nemesis” operation coordinated by the District Anti -Mafia Directorate, accused of having tightened an electoral pact with the Tallaric gang, in exchange for contracts and favors. After the first decision of the review, which had in fact confirmed the existence of that pact, the Cassation however found contradictions in the motivation of the judges, the omission of the evaluation of the defensive memories and the insufficiency of the elements in support of the accusations, canceling the order with postponement to another judge. At the center of the story there was above all a “key phone call” between an intermediary of the gang and seminar, considered by the accusation the proof of the electoral exchange with the Tallarics. However, according to the Court of Cassation, the phonic report produced by the defense on the actual content of the conversation has significantly reduced the evidentiary value of the interception. Part of that conversation, however, was not transcribed in the versions used by the judicial police.