Justice min defends conduct in fraud case

(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) – Rome, November 5 – Anna Maria Cancellieri, Italy’s embattled justice minister, remained defiant Tuesday amid grillings in both houses of parliament over allegations she meddled in a high-profile fraud case her critics link to family ties. “I never solicited the appropriate authorities to release Giulia Ligresti from prison and I never called on others to do so,” said Cancellieri before the Senate. Ligresti is a member of a major Italian business dynasty who was arrested along with her sister Jonella in July for alleged involvement in cooking the books at the Fonsai insurance group. In August Ligresti was released to house arrest. Her father Salvatore Ligresti, the family patriarch and former honorary chairman of Fonsai, is also under house arrest along with two former executives from the insurance company. Cancellieri’s detractors, which include the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the regionalist Northern Leage, have called for the resignation of the politically unaffiliated minister.

Cancellieri admits to calling judicial authorities about the case but says it was strictly to inform them that Giulia Ligresti suffered from anorexia and depression. The minister’s son, Piergiorgio Peluso, is a former manager at the insurance group and received a whopping five-million-euro severance payoff after a short spell there. On Tuesday the minister repeated she was ready to step down if the country asked her to.

But the two main parties that make up the grand-coalition government both came to her defence following her parliament appearances. “We have heard the minister, and looking at the facts we have confirmed our confidence in her. She committed no deeds that were outside her responsibilities,” said Guglielmo Epifani, secretary of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), which counts Premier Enrico Letta among its members. During the hearings, Letta showed his support by extending his hand to his cabinet member. The Senate whip for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) also resisted the call that she resign. “We’re not calling for her resignation. On the contrary, we want her to go on with her mandate,” said Renato Schifani. Some members of the PdL have compared the case to the one involving Berlusconi and a former exotic dancer known as Ruby, whom he was convicted of paying for sex when she was underage. Earlier this year judges in Milan ruled the then premier abused his office to free Ruby from jail in an unrelated theft case by phoning police and telling them she was the niece of then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, which was untrue. Berlusconi got six years for coercion of police officers and one year for paying Ruby for sex. He is appealing both sentences.

Meanwhile Cancellieri emphasized that she would not hold on to her ministry at all costs. “I consider parliament’s confidence decisive for the future of my mandate. If it is the case that I do not have it…I will not hesitate to take a step back,” she told parliament.