Mayor Di Rando arrested in vote exchange scandal, regional councilor Sammartino suspended
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More than 100 carabinieri from the provincial command of Catania are carrying out, in the provinces of Catania and Palermo, a precautionary measure order issued by the Gip of the Catania court, against 11 political figures, municipal officials, and entrepreneurs, accused of various crimes such as “political-mafia electoral exchange, aggravated extortion by mafia methods, aggravated corruption, instigation to corruption, and disruption of auction freedom.” The mayor of Tremestieri Eneo, Santi Di Rando, has been arrested. The vice president of the Region and leader of the Lega, Luca Sammartino, has been suspended from public functions for a year.
Acquired in the investigation coordinated by the District Prosecutor’s Office of Catania and conducted by the investigative unit of Catania between 2018 and 2021, were the illegal agreements between some administrators of the Municipality of Tremestieri Etneo and elements close to the Santapaola-Ercolano mafia clan, concerning the election in 2015 of the current mayor Santi Rando, as well as the subsequent “business degeneration” of the Municipality, carried out by unfaithful officials through numerous corrupt practices, to grant permits and assign work to “friendly entrepreneurs.” It has also emerged, as part of a strategy by the municipal leaders to neutralize any form of political opposition, the corrupt agreement with the historic opposition councilor Mario Ronsisvalle, who then moved to support Rando’s supporters for the 2021 administrative elections. In particular, Ronsisvalle, the owner of a pharmacy in Tremestieri, thanks in part to the intervention of Luca Rosario Sammartino, the main political reference of the mayor, at the time a regional deputy and current vice-president of the Region, would have been favored through the reduction of the number of pharmacies in the municipal organic chart, promising in exchange electoral support for the candidate supported by Sammartino for the 2019 European elections.
Voto di scambio a Tremestieri Etneo: arrestato il sindaco Di Rando, sospeso dai pubblici uffici l’assessore regionale Sammartino
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