A huge bribe was demanded for plans by the Malta Freeport to set up a container terminal in the Italian coastal town of Brindisi, a court in Brindisi was told last week.
The case, and similar others involving corruption and the involvement of Italian political parties, is being called by the local media “Tangentopoli”, reminiscent of the stories of corruption which went under the collective name of “Mani pulite” which broke the long-established political parties in Italy in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Brindisi court held its second hearing of the Tangentopoli case on Thursday.
The man who should have testified first was former mayor Giovanni Antonino, who is not among the accused following an admission of guilt against a reduced sentence agreement he had reached with the court.
Instead, however, to the surprise of all, local businessman Luca Scagliarini turned up, who asked, and was granted, leave to testify. He then gave evidence on an e800,000 bribe related to two local environment companies.
It was then the turn of former mayor Antonino, who claimed that the former Centre-Right administration of the city had set up a veritable Business Committee to manage the money coming from bribes.
It was here that the former mayor claimed the ‘Committee’ had demanded from Tuscan entrepreneur Mario Salucci the payment of Lit. 5,000 million to set up a container terminal to be run by Malta Freeport in the port of Brindisi.
According to Antonino it was Marco Pezzuto, at the time president of the local council, who demanded this sum. It was agreed that Lit 1,000 million would go to him, another Lit. 1,000 would go to former president of the province Nicola Frugis and the rest, Lit. 3,000 million, would go to the three parties in the local administration – Alleanza Nazionale, Forza Italia and UDC, whose representatives were Marcello Rollo, Marco Pezzuto and Nicola Di Donna.
At first Antonino tried to tell the court that this sum was to pay for the use of land by the container terminal, but on being pressed by the court, he admitted this was a real and proper bribe.
He added that when Pezzuto made that request, both Di Donna and Rollo were present. According to local television station PugliaTV, when asked, the latter two “obviously” denied their involvement.