Ex-Berlusconi undersecretary freed from house arrest

(ANSA) – Caserta, November 8 – Camorra-linked politician Nicola Cosentino, from ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, was released from house arrest on Friday after a court ruling in Caserta.

Cosentino, a former industry undersecretary under Berlusconi, was arrested on March 15 on suspicion of collusion with the Neapolitan mafia for alleged links with the powerful Casalesi clan whose death threats have forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano into 24-hour police protection.

He was moved from jail to house arrest in July. Prosecutors say Cosentino, the former PdL leader in the Campania region around Naples and former party leader there, was the “national reference point” of the Casalesis, who come from his native Casal di Principe.

Cosentino denies wrongdoing and Berlusconi has described the case against him as an example of alleged judicial persecution.

However he did drop him from party lists in the February general elections amid concerns over a possible political backlash.