Asl investigation of Benevento: Nunzia De Girolamo also acquitted on appeal. "A nightmare that lasted 9 years"

"A nine-year nightmare that is now over."

This is the hot comment of

at the news of the

in Naples in the investigation into alleged management irregularities in the Asl di Benevento.

The former minister had been sent to trial along with other defendants.

At the center of the legal matter was the existence of what the investigators at the time defined "a political-party directorate" that would have influenced the management of the Samnite ASL and of which De Girolamo would have been at the head. 

The stages of the investigation

An investigation born at the end of 2013, which exploded in the media at the beginning of 2014 and which led De Girolamo to resign (not investigated) from the Letta government, in which she was responsible for agricultural policies. 

An intrigue with the contours of a spy story due to the recordings that one of the defendants, the former administrative director of ASL, Felice Pisapia, made secretly during two meetings held in the house of De Girolamo's father, who at the time did not he had still taken up government posts.

Summits in which the former minister himself, then provincial coordinator of the PDL, had taken an active part.

The acquisition of those recordings by the judiciary led to the involvement of the former minister in the investigation that had started from a series of bills paid for health services for the prosecution never actually paid.

Criminal association, extortion and utility in exchange for electoral vote: these are the charges originally disputed, for various reasons, to De Girolamo and the other seven defendants, all acquitted at first instance, on 10 December 2020, because the fact does not exist.

The prosecutor had appealed against the acquittal, only against six accused, including the former minister, and only for the crimes of extortion, consummated and attempted.

The Attorney General has asked for convictions for all, but the Court confirmed today the full acquittal.

In the afternoon the verdict of acquittal by the Court of Appeal, which confirmed the sentence of the court.

"I really" want to thank those who, in these terrible years, have always been close to me with affection, starting with my family ", said the former minister, now a TV presenter." There is no doubt the bitterness for an unprecedented media lynching. ", he added." Nobody will give me back the nine years of serenity, but luckily there is still a just justice and today I enjoy this moment ".

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Nunzia De Girolamo