Thursday, July 08, 2010

Italy: Arrests made in wind farm probe

Italian businessman Flavio Carboni was taken to a Rome prison on Thursday following his arrest by police in the Italian capital on corruption charges. Investigators allege he was involved in graft over the awarding of permits to construct wind farms power plants on the island of Sardinia.

Seventy-eight year-old Carboni's lawyer said he will appeal his client's detention.

Pasquale Lombardi, a former member the defunct Christian Democrat party and ex-mayor of a town near the southern city of Naples also arrested, as was builder and former Naples city councillor, Arcangelo Martino.

Regional president of Sardinia Ugo Cappellacci is under investigation for the wind-farm scandal, Italian media reported in May. The ally of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is accused of abuse of office following telephone intercepts .

At the time of Cappellacci's arrest, police searched Sardinia's regional environmental protection office, which has the power to award construction permits for wind farms, according to Italian daily La Repubblica.

Denis Verdini, national coordinator of Italy's ruling People of Liberty party, has also been cited in the probe.

Carboni and former Rome mafia boss Ernesto Diotallevi were convicted and later acquitted in 2007 on appeal for involvement in the murder in the death of Italian banker Roberto Calvi during the 1980s.

Dubbed "God's Banker", Calvi was found hanging from London's Blackfriar's bridge in 1982 following the collapse of Italian bank Banco Ambrosiano, of which he was chairman.

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