A Rome judge on Thursday ordered
prosecutors to present a request for indictment against Justice
Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro delle Vedove for allegedly
revealing official secrets, rejecting their request to have the
case shelved.
Delmastro is under investigation in relation to revelations made
in parliament about the case of jailed anarchist leader Alfredo
Cospito by Giovanni Donzelli, a
fellow MP for Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI)
party.
The case concerns an alleged breach of secrecy rules as
Delmastro, who is also Donzelli's flat mate, was the source of
the information his fellow MP disclosed in parliament.
The indictment request will be examined by a preliminary
hearings judge, who will decide whether to send Delmastro to
trial.
In January Donzelli told parliament that Cospito, who was on
hunger strike at the time to protest against the tough 41 bis
jail regime he is being held under, had talked to mafia bosses
about getting the treatment abolished.
The jail regime is usually reserved for mafiosi.
Donzelli also revealed that four lawmakers from the opposition,
centre-left Democratic Party (PD) had visited Cospito, who is
serving a combined 30-year sentence for the Fossano bombing, in
which two Carabinieri were injured, and kneecapping a nuclear
company executive in 2012.
During the debate Donzelli, a member of the Copasir
parliamentary committee that oversees Italy's intelligence
services, asked whether the PD was on the side of the State or
that of the mafia and terrorists, sparking indignation from the
opposition.
Delmastro subsequently fuelled the row by saying that the PD
lawmakers had given in to Cospito's demand that they meet other
people being held under the 41 bis, including two mafia bosses,
as a condition for the encounter with him.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said that the information was not
classified.
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