Adnkronos Milan, October 17 (Adnkronos) – The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office has attempted to challenge the decision by Milan preliminary hearing judge Tiziana Gueli to suspend the proceedings against Tourism Minister Daniela Santanché, who is under investigation for aggravated fraud against the National Institute of Social Security (INPS), pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court on the conflict of powers raised by the Senate.
In a technical brief, prosecutors Luigi Luzi and Maria Giuseppina Gravina describe the request as "anomalous" and cite the precedent in the trial regarding the so-called "State-Mafia negotiations." They argue that, with reference to the emails sent to the defendant Santanchè, submitted by employees, "these are documents intended solely to highlight that the employees, during the period in which they were on Covid furlough, had in fact continued to work. This circumstance has already emerged amply from the workers' statements themselves, from the recorded conversations between Bottiglione, Kunz, and Concordia, from the investigation conducted by INPS, as well as from all other evidence emerging from the investigation, documents whose admissibility in the present proceedings is not in question."
Even with regard to the conversations between those present recorded by Moschini and handed over to investigators, "it should be noted that the factual circumstances contained in the recordings are already the subject of statements made by Moschini and the other workers interviewed at the preliminary hearing." For the prosecutors, regardless of the issue raised by the defense, "the overall assessment of the evidence acquired during the investigation and submitted to the preliminary hearing judge may lead to the defendants being sent to trial."