Rising process towards reunification with the ‘bis’

(from the correspondent Elvira Terranova) – The ordinary trial of the so-called ‘Rising System’ resumes this morning before the Court of Caltanissetta, which sees among the ‘excellent’ defendants also the former President of the Senate Renato Schifani, now candidate for the Presidency of the Sicilian Region for the center-right. The politician is accused of complicity in simple criminal association and disclosure of confidential information. On trial also the former director of Aisi Arturo Esposito, the foreman of Aisi Andrea Cavacece, the “king of supermarkets” Massimo Romano, the tax attorney Massimo Cuva, the colonel of the carabinieri Giuseppe D’Agata, the trade unionist Maurizio Bernava, the entrepreneurs in the security sector Andrea and Salvatore Calì, Rosetta Cangialosi, Carmela Giardina and Vincenzo Mistretta (three employees of Montante), the policeman Salvatore Graceffa; the manager of Confindustria Carlo La Rotonda; the major of the Guardia di Finanza Ettore Orfanello; the lieutenant Mario Sanfilippo and the colonel of the carabinieri Letterio Romeo. The process moves towards reunification with the so-called ‘bis’ that sees other excellent defendants in the bar, such as the former Sicilian Governor Rosario Crocetta. Thus there will be 30 defendants in the reunified ‘trial’, of which 17 only in the main trial. The college should be chaired by Francesco D’Arrigo. While the side judges could be Santi Bologna, of the ordinary, and one of the two judges of the ‘bis’. The defendants in the main trial, unlike Montante and four other defendants who had opted for the shortened rite, which had already reached the appeal sentence, had chosen the ordinary rite. The trial against Montante originated from the “Double face” investigation, conducted in 2018 by the Caltanissetta Mobile Squad and coordinated by the Nissena Dda. According to the investigators, the former champion of the anti-mafia would have set up a real ‘system’ of power, conceived and implemented “thanks to a branched network of relationships and complicity interwoven with various characters included at the top of the various sectors of the institutions “. Furthermore, it would have been at the center of a dossier activity carried out, also thanks to excellent complicity, through access to the law enforcement database and aimed at blackmailing “enemies”, influencing political and administrative activities and acquiring information on investigations to his Thanks to his contacts and the influence he exercised in some institutional circles, the entrepreneur would have created a sort of spy network: in exchange for favors, exponents of the police would have given him information on investigations against him, straight on “enemies”, allowed to have piles of dossiers on influential people. According to the investigators, Montante would have been the head of a sort of “parallel government” in Sicily, and would have “directed” the political and administrative life of the island, placing his men in strategic positions. “It was ascertained with sufficient clarity – the Nissen prosecutor wrote in the request for arrest – that Montante, in addition to promising and obtaining employment, did his utmost to meet career expectations or transfers of headquarters”. Montante himself is expected today to testify in the hearing of the ordinary trial. In the abbreviated case, the former head of industrialists was sentenced to 8 years. council had sentenced the former president of Sicindustria, Antonello Montante, to 8 years in prison for criminal association aimed at corruption and unauthorized access to the computer system. The court of appeal of Caltanissetta chaired by Andreina Occhipinti (on the sidelines Giovanbattista Tona and Alessandra Giunta) had also sentenced the members of the “magic circle” in July: 5 years for Diego Di Simone, the former inspector of the Palermo mobile team who became the head of security of Confindustria. In the first instance he was 6 years and 4 months old. Another conviction also for Marco De Angelis, deputy commissioner of the Palermo police headquarters: 3 years and 3 months, while in the first instance he had been 4. He too would have had a decisive role in the activity of ‘espionage’. Instead, the commissioner Andrea Grassi, who in the first instance had had 1 year and 4 months, was acquitted. The former officer of the Central Police Operations Service had been held responsible for a leak, but the gup had already acquitted him of the heaviest charge, he was not part of the Montante chain of moles. In the summer, a full acquittal arrived. Finally, General Gianfranco Ardizzone, former provincial commander of the Guardia di Finanza of Caltanissetta, was acquitted of two counts. For another charge, relating to the hiring of the daughter, the statute of limitations was triggered. The reasons for the appeal sentence are now awaited. the former president of the Region Rosario Crocetta, former regional councilors, entrepreneurs and representatives of the police, accused of having been part of the so-called Montanta System. Among the accused, in addition to the former anti-mafia champion Antonello Montante, former president of Confindustria Sicily, there are the former president of the Region Rosario Crocetta, the former councilors Linda Vancheri and Mariella Lo Bello, the former commissioner Irsap Maria Grazia Brandara , the entrepreneurs Giuseppe Catanzaro, Rosario Amarù and Carmelo Turco, Vincenzo Savastano deputy superintendent at the time of the events of the Police at the border office of Fiumicino, Gaetano Scillia head of the Dia center of Caltanissetta from 2010 to 2014, Arturo De Felice, director of the Dia from 2012 to 2014, Giuseppe D’Agata, colonel of the carabinieri, and Diego Di Simone Perricone, former head of security of Confindustria. support the electoral campaign of former governor Crocetta. The defendants are accused, in various capacities, of criminal association aimed at corruption, abusive access to the computer system and illegal financing of parties. 19 civil parties were admitted. Among them the entrepreneur Marco Venturi and Alfonso Cicero, former president of Irsap Sicily, who are considered among the key texts of the investigation. high-profile assessors, bureaucrats and investigators. The former number one of the Sicilian industrialists would have organized a criminal association, together with the people already involved in the first trial closed in the first degree with heavy sentences. The purpose of Montante, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, would have been to build dossiers against “the enemies” and corner them, “satisfy personal interests”, help people “closely linked”. Today, or perhaps in one of the next hearings, the reunification of the two processes.