In order to pocket the bribe, they falsified the Covid-negative certificates of a candidate who, if she had tested positive for Sars-Cov-2, could have infected her colleagues on the training course.
Contempt for the health of others also emerges in the investigation by the Central Investigative Unit of the Penitentiary Police which, coordinated by the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office, has shed light on a series of corruption episodes allegedly committed between the end of 2020 and the first half of 2021 by Errico Spena and Maurizio Russo, two members of the Penitentiary Police Corps serving inside the New Palace of Justice in Naples, already detained for similar crimes. A total of 19 people are under investigation. For 14, investigating judge Federica Colucci has ordered precautionary measures: 2 in prison and 12 under house arrest.
Among these are Aniello Aversano (assistant chief of the Penitentiary Police serving at the Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison), Gennaro Fatone (a traffic policeman in Caivano, in the Naples area), Giorgio Spina (an Army corporal serving at the Maddaloni barracks, in the Caserta area).
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Then there are the “corrupt” candidates and the intermediaries. The investigating judge of Naples, Federica Colucci, who issued the precautionary measures, considered particularly serious the reiteration of the falsification of the documents on the negativity to Covid and the gratuitousness of such conduct “since the woman’s absence from the course, even if she had tested positive for Covid-19, would have been fully justified”.
The investigation also revealed that in order to benefit candidates for the psychological aptitude tests for recruitment into the Carabinieri, the Army, the Air Force and the Penitentiary Police, the suspects did not only accept large sums of money (we are talking about several tens of thousands of euros, hidden even in packets of pasta) as compensation, but also other benefits, such as Rolex watches, and even shoes.
As many as 24 pairs were promised to one of the policemen by the entrepreneur father of one of the young candidates and, in another episode, also about sixty membership cards to the union to which the two arrested officers belonged, which are worth 5-6 thousand euros. The interceptions (via spy viruses), according to the investigators and also according to the judge, are emblematic of the "non-occasional nature" of the illicit conduct found.
“Cryptic” conversations in which, for example, a bottle of wine corresponded to a thousand euros. In the order, the judge is lapidary in stigmatizing the behavior of the corrupt law enforcement representatives but also that of the “beneficiaries” of the favors who, he emphasizes, took the tests in full awareness “of not having the physical requirements to pass the selections”.
Nevertheless, “they did not hesitate to resort to corruption to get around the obstacle”. As for those who passed the tests, the investigating judge further highlights, “it seems entirely plausible to expect that they will exercise the public function in the same way in which they obtained it”. Among the episodes that ended up under the investigators’ lens is also the one in which the chief superintendent of the Penitentiary Errico Spena, faced with the possibility of losing his client because of a scar, asks for help from his “saints in heaven” to overcome the inconvenience.
In a wiretap in the files, the agent asks Don Franco, a character who has not been identified despite being investigated, for a “miracle” for the young client who passes off as his nephew. The investigators believe that it is likely a top figure in the ecclesiastical sphere: “… if you can perform a miracle, what can I say, it is really an exception…”, says Spena speaking on the phone with Don Franco, “… he is a really smart guy…”. The alleged prelate responds: “… okay, send me the data… then we’ll see…”. Shortly after, the data will arrive at its destination via text message.
Another disconcerting element that emerges from the investigation concerns a girl who, in order to allow her to participate in the training courses for student Penitentiary Police officers, had her necessary negative test certificate falsified several times.
The people involved in the creation of the false certificate ended up under house arrest: the administrator of a workplace hygiene and safety company, Alessio Iannillo, 32 years old, the former prison officer Maurizio Russo, 29 years old and the 29-year-old candidate.
The suspects “…did not hesitate to falsify the negativity to Covid, accepting the risk that the candidate, although positive, attended the training course at the school in Portici, where she could have infected numerous people”. The investigating judge Federica Colucci wrote in the precautionary custody order.
The Naples Public Prosecutor's Office, as part of the investigation, ordered the seizure of the Covid-19 health documentation presented by the candidate, finding four certifications but, from the checks carried out in the Irpinia analysis laboratory, it emerged instead that in the name of the candidate there were only two certifications, dating back to October 8st and January XNUMXth.
Furthermore, the stamp and signature of the director were found on the two certificates found in the laboratory, while those seized in the school only had the stamp. The investigating judge therefore deemed the crime of inducing a public official to commit ideological falsehood to the advantage of the crime of material forgery committed by a private individual, which was later shared by the investigators, to be non-existent.
It is the wiretaps of a few months that frame the three suspects. "I thought instead of telling... I would tell Alessio, maybe he'll give us a certificate without even doing the swab", the investigators hear; and another request: "I need a certificate of negativity, because he has to bring it there, but I don't want him to unfortunately do the swab, I don't want him to come out positive".
The solution? “I tell him make a copy, he gets a retroactive one of yours,” one of them replies. Talking to the former Penitentiary Police officer Maurizio Russo, one of the candidates for the training and refresher courses of the Police Corps and the Personnel of the Penitentiary Administration of Portici.
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Article published on November 19, 2021 - 11:30
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