Apr 04 2007
ANTI-MAFIA COMMITTEE PROPOSES BAN ON INDICTED POLITICAL CANDIDATES
Rome (AKI) - Italy’s parliamentary anti-Mafia committee has approved a code of conduct ahead of next month’s local elections, urging parties not to field candidates who face trial on charges of links to the Mafia, extortion, usury and money laundering. On 13-14 May in Sicily and on 27-28 May in the rest of the country, almost 12,000 voters will elect eight provincial councils and about one thousand municipal councils in Italy - a country where at least 163 local councils have been dissolved since 1991 on charges of links to the Mafia.
The measure, explained the president of the anti-Mafia commission, Francesco Forgione, on Tuesday, is not binding and parties can choose whether they want to follow it.
The potential exclusion of a politician from an electoral list will be “a political act and not a judicial one.”
Under Italian legislation, a citizen who has served a sentence can run for office unless they have been banned from public office by a judge.
Twenty Italian MPs and Euro-MPs across the political spectrum have been convicted on a range of charges including corruption and links to the Mafia.
(Ebc/Aki) Apr-04-07 13:01 http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.401786361&par=0
