The sentences were handed down after 20 months of hearings, 230 sessions and five hours convening in Chambers. Around 1 p.m. Thursday, the judges closed the first instance of the trial against corrupt officials commonly known as the “Capital Mafia.” The document read by President Rossana Ianniello includes different levels; it doesn’t only talk about the 46 defendants, and it goes beyond the map of the power system that has stormed in Rome for years.
The first blow is the accusatory hypothesis brought by the ADAs Paolo Ielo, Giuseppe Cascini and Luca Tescaroli, based on the investigations coordinated by the prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone.
The most serious offense falls on the mafia-style corruption ring. The Capital Mafia is not a new form of mafia. The association of alliances, power players and interest groups is downgraded to a simple association to commit a crime.
Almost as a counterweight, there is deluge of sentences: For 36 people, they were sentenced to 250 years of imprisonment. Starting with Massimo Carminati and Salvatore Buzzi, the alleged leaders, who were sentenced to 20 and 19 years respectively (though less than what the prosecutor asked for).