Caltanissetta: Inquiry into Three Magistrates Archived

Last Updated: June 19, 2024

Caltanissetta, archiviata l'inchiesta per tre magistrati: erano accusati di aver omesso un documento nel fascicolo su Salvini

The judge of Caltanissetta, Emanuela Carrabotta, has archived the investigation against the deputy prosecutor of Agrigento Salvatore Vella (who will be chief prosecutor of Gela from July 2), former deputy prosecutor Cecilia Baravelli (now in Padova) and deputy prosecutor of Palermo Marzia Sabella. The magistrates were accused of abuse of office in relation to Matteo Salvini when he was Minister of the Interior.

“The failure to include in the investigation file, against the then Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini, the report of a submarine of the Navy that reported alleged anomalies by the NGO ship Open Arms did not represent – writes the judge of Caltanissetta – any abuse of office committed by the magistrates towards the leader of the League but it is a legitimate act that falls within the discretion of the public prosecutors.”

The investigation was started after a complaint from former vice president of the Senate, Maurizio Gasparri, at the time president of the Committee for parliamentary immunities, who reported learning from the media of the existence of a report from a military submarine that reported irregularities by the NGO Sea Watch that would have supported the ban on entry into territorial waters for which Salvini is facing trial for kidnapping and omission of official duties. Elements that, according to Gasparri, were kept secret from the judges and the committee for parliamentary immunities and authorizations to proceed. The same minister filed a complaint and the three magistrates who handled the case were placed under investigation for abuse of office.

The leader of the League, through his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, opposed the closing of the case. The judge, after a couple of months from the hearing in which all parties were heard, accepted the arguments of the defenders of the three magistrates, lawyers Daniela Posante, Calogero Meli and Lillo Fiorello. For Vella and Baravelli, the judge emphasizes that the failure to include the report in the file was an act that falls within the discretionary power of the prosecutors in the conduct of the investigation. A different situation for the deputy prosecutor of Palermo, Marzia Sabella, who – the judge writes in the order – simply transmitted the investigative acts carried out by her colleagues to the court of ministers and it would not have been within her competence to carry out any investigative acts.