Two regional councillors, a caterer arrested for graft
(ANSA) – Cagliari, November 6 – Police on the island of Sardinia on Wednesday arrested two regional council members and a caterer on charges of misappropriating public funds.
The arrests came as part of a wider embezzlement probe into a total of 33 officials elected to the island’s local government body.
Mario Diana, formerly from the center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party and now heading a mixed group called Sardinia Is Already Tomorrow, was transferred to a prison in the western town of Oristano.
His colleague Carlo Sanjust (PdL) was taken to Buoncammino prison in the island’s capital of Cagliari, police sources said.
Sanjust will have to answer charges that he paid for his wedding with 20,000 euros of public money. Caterer and businessman Riccardo Cogoni was taken into custody as part of the same investigation.
Also on Wednesday, police searched the office of regional council member Onorio Petrini (PdL), a dental technician, in search of evidence related to the same case, investigators said.