From Chiaravalloti (FI) to Oliverio (PD): all the judicial flops that have overwhelmed the presidents of Calabria.

On the same topic:

Roberto Occhiuto is just the latest in a list of Calabrian presidents to have come under judicial scrutiny. While the Forza Italia representative is still in the investigation phase, the common denominator among his predecessors was their acquittal after years and years of trials. This pattern has affected both center-right presidents (e.g., Giuseppe Chiaravalloti) and center-left ones (e.g., Agazio Loiero and Mario Oliverio) . Among this list of Calabrian presidents investigated and then acquitted, there is the exception of Giuseppe Scopelliti, who, however, was convicted for acts prior to his time as regional president and resigned shortly thereafter. It is therefore worthwhile to review the various cases to understand what they have in common: a prosecutor's office, that of Catanzaro, which, as one prosecutor passes from De Magistris to Gratteri, continues to target the regional president at the time. The resulting political upheaval in the region. And, years later, the acquittal on all charges. A modus operandi that led to the destruction of political careers, while the prosecutors in charge of the prosecution gained increasing visibility, which was then used (at least in the case of De Magistris) in the political arena.

Giuseppe Chiaravalloti (2000-2005)

Chiaravalloti, a career magistrate in the prosecutor's offices of Crotone, Catanzaro, and Reggio Calabria, was elected president of Calabria in 2000 for Forza Italia, a center-right coalition. His case is the only one we report here involving an investigation launched after his term as regional president. In 2005, he was investigated for fraud in the Poseidone investigation, conducted by the Catanzaro prosecutor's office, Luigi de Magistris, concerning the disappearance of European funds for the construction of sewage treatment plants in Calabria. This marked the beginning of a series of acquittals for Chiaravalloti, including the one in the 'Ndrangheta trial conducted by the Vibo Valentia prosecutor's office the following year, in which Chiaravalloti was implicated on corruption charges and later acquitted by the preliminary hearing judge because "the fact did not exist." But the investigation that will most expose him in the media is the monstrous "Why Not" investigation launched in 2007 by the Catanzaro prosecutor's office, again led by De Magistris. This prosecution investigated an alleged power group involving businessmen, politicians, and Freemasonry, and involved crimes such as criminal conspiracy, fraud, and corruption in the management of public funds allocated to the region. Over 100 people were charged, including former Prime Minister Romano Prodi and former Justice Minister Clemente Mastella (both acquitted). Chiaravalloti was accused by the prosecutor's office of abuse of office and fraud: he was acquitted in the first instance, and on appeal, the case was dismissed due to the statute of limitations on the abuse of office case. This outcome was also upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation. "The accuser was clearly incompetent. He's committed dozens of flops, 98 percent of the charges have been dropped, and this didn't just happen in the Why Not case," Chiaravalloti said after the final acquittal.

Agazio Loiero (2005-2010)

A former Christian Democrat, a member of the Margherita party, and former Minister for Relations with Parliament and Regional Affairs, he was elected President of Calabria in 2005. The first investigation he was involved in was in 2006, concerning the Calabrian healthcare system, and was still being led by De Magistris, the Catanzaro prosecutor. Charged with criminal conspiracy and bid-rigging while serving his term, he was acquitted by the preliminary hearing judge at the prosecutor's request. But his name is most closely linked to the "Why Not" investigation, which we discussed above. Loiero, like his predecessor Chiaravalloti, was also charged with abuse of office. Acquitted in the first instance with a summary trial, he was sentenced to one year on appeal, and then acquitted for not having committed the crime by the Supreme Court, without a remand. In July of this year, Loiero was also acquitted in the first instance in the "Rimborsopoli" trial by the Reggio Calabria prosecutor's office for the handling of reimbursements to city councilors between 2010 and 2012, when he was no longer president of the regional council. "But 14 years under accusation are worth a conviction," he said, commenting on the trial outcome.

Mario Oliverio (2014-2020)

After four years as president of Forza Italia's Giuseppe Scopelliti, who resigned following a conviction for abuse of office and forgery related to his time as mayor of Reggio Calabria (2007-2010), it was Mario Oliverio's turn , a former member of parliament and president of the province of Cosenza. The Democratic Party representative also quickly drew judicial scrutiny. In 2018, the Catanzaro prosecutor's office, led since 2016 by prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, requested his house arrest on charges of abuse of office and then corruption in a case involving ski lift contracts in the municipality of Lorica, in Sila, province of Cosenza. It was the investigating judge who ordered him, as regional president, to reside in the municipality of San Giovanni in Fiore. As early as 2019, the Supreme Court of Cassation would seek the annulment of the residence requirement, explaining in its reasons that the circumstantial evidence against Oliverio "is based on a fundamental contradiction" and that "the interpretation of the conversations stems from a clear accusatory bias." The verdict came in 2021: he was acquitted of the charges of corruption and abuse of office because "the fact does not exist." But that's not all. In 2018, Oliverio was investigated by the Catanzaro prosecutor's office, again on the suspicion of abuse of office, but the same preliminary hearing judge ruled that the case was dismissed "because the act does not constitute a crime." Nevertheless, Oliverio faced further investigation by the Catanzaro prosecutor's office, again led by Gratteri, who accused him of embezzlement for having used €95,000 from the region to promote Calabria at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. The prosecution's hypothesis is that Oliverio used the money for "personal promotion." The result? A full acquittal, both at first instance and on appeal, because "the fact was not proven."

A long list of judicial failures that have shaken Calabrian politics over the past 25 years. And it should prompt greater caution when reading the investigation involving outgoing president Roberto Occhiuto, accused of corruption.

More on these topics: