Scafati. Fourteen thousand and twenty days, 38 years and 5 months in prison for having promoted a political-electoral pact with the Camorra for the 2013 administrative elections and the 2015 regional elections: this is the overall sentence requested for the mayor of Scafati, Angel Pasqualino Aliberti and for his six co-defendants, including the wife Monica Paolino, former regional councilor, and the brother Aniello Maurizio.
The public prosecutor of the DDA, Rocco Alfano, during the long and detailed indictment, held yesterday before the judges of the court of Nocera Inferiore (president Apicella), outlined the responsibilities and sources of evidence against the seven excellent defendants accused of mafia-related political electoral exchange in the two electoral rounds that decreed the election of the current mayor of Scafati Aliberti in 2013 and that of his wife Monica Paolino, in the 2015 regional elections, with the Forza Italia party.
Seven years after the arrest of Angelo Pasqualino Aliberti, which took place on January 24, 2018, comes the closing speech of the trial arising from theOperation Sarastra.
At the end of the prosecution, the public prosecutor of the Salerno District Directorate requested the conviction of all the defendants.
Sentences also requested for the wife and brother
The highest sentence requested is that reserved for Angelo Pasqualino Aliberti, six years and eight months of imprisonment. The politician, who returned after the dissolution of the municipality of Scafati in 2017 and the arrest in 2018, at the helm of the Municipality in the administrative elections of last year, would have - according to the accusation - promoted an electoral exchange, votes in exchange for favors and contracts, with exponents of the Loreto-Ridosso clan.
Six years and three months is the heavy sentence requested, Aniello Maurizio Aliberti, brother and 'longa manus' of the mayor also accused of threatening a journalist. Five years and 4 months, instead, for the wife of the mayor Monica Paolino, former regional councilor of Forza Italia, who would have benefited from the gang's votes.
The other defendants are also guilty according to the prosecution. The prosecutor has requested five years and nine months for the former city councilor Roberto Barchiesi, elected in 2013 and uncle of the then wife of Alfonso Loreto, a member of the clan already sentenced with an abbreviated trial. Three years and four months is the sentence requested for Andrea Ridosso, nephew of the boss Romulus Ridosso, who benefited from some professional roles in the Area Plan, of which Scafati was the leader, after the 2013 electoral victory.
The request for a sentence is also heavy for the former member of Aliberti's staff and factotum, John Cozzolino, who according to the prosecution should serve five years and four months. While 5 years and nine months were requested for Cyrus Petrucci, former vice president of theAcse, the in-house company of the Municipality of Scafati that deals with services for the territory.
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According to the prosecution, the Loreto-Ridosso exponents would have campaigned for the then candidate Pasquale Aliberti and his wife, Monica Paolino, in the 2013 administrative elections and the 2015 regional elections, in exchange for contracts and jobs to people close to the Scafatese gang.
During his closing speech, the public prosecutor underlined the 'procedural weight' of the sentence of conviction, for the same crimes, issued against the members of the Loreto-Ridosso gang with an abbreviated procedure, which later became final: Alfonso Loreto (six years old), son of the former repentant and clan leader Pasquale, and his brothers Gennaro (5 years and 4 months), Louis Ridosso (5 years and 2 months, sons of Romolo Ridosso sentenced to 3 years and seven months.
The fate of not only the current seven defendants but also the political and administrative fate of the city of Scafati depends on the trial resulting from the Sarastra operation, which will presumably end in September. In the event of the mayor's conviction, the city would have to go back to the polls.
There are several episodes of which they are accused to varying degrees Aliberti and his family and loyal followers, in addition to the favors and contracts to people close to the clan, there are the threats to the journalist Valeria Cozzolino, at the time correspondent of the daily newspaper Metropolis, charged in particular to Aniello Maurizio Aliberti, brother of the mayor, for which he has already been convicted Gennaro Ridosso.
During the trial, numerous witnesses were heard, in particular collaborators of justice and members of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate who dealt with the investigations that led to the arrests in 2018 in Operation Sarastra. A disruptive investigation that dismantled the family clan of the Loreto-Ridosso, which included the offspring of the 'old' Camorristi who later repented Pasquale and Romolo del Alfieri-Galasso clan.
The investigation also marked the end, only temporarily judging by the recent return to politics at the helm of the municipality, of the political-administrative era of Forza Italia representative Angelo Pasqualino Aliberti, first elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2013, and his wife Monica Paolino, a political upstart who became a regional councilor for Berlusconi's party in 2015.
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