Barbara Mirabella, a candidate for the Regionals in Sicily for FdI, and former municipal councilor for Culture in the council of Salvo Pogliese was arrested for corruption by the Catania mobile squad and is now under house arrest. Last August she was appointed regional director of the Department of “Major Events” of Codacons, as well as being part of the Office of the National Secretary.
The other suspects, the former rector of the University of Catania Francesco Basile and the entrepreneur Giovanni Trova, were suspended from the activity for a year. Basile had already been investigated for criminal association in 2019, on the sidelines of the “banned University” operation, which saw him involved as rector of the University of Catania for rigging competitions. On 2 July 2019 he resigned as rector.
The survey has placed the magnifying glass on the organization of the 123rd National Congress of the Italian Society of Chiurgia (SIC), of which Basile is president. The investigators investigated the relationship between SIC, New Congress Srl and Expo Srl, a company of which Barbara Mirabella was also a member. “In order to obtain the unconditional help of the commissioner and – this is the thesis of the investigators – of the municipal administration for all the needs of the organization of the prestigious congress, the administrators of New Congress Srl, also induced by Basile, would have accepted to pay 10 thousand euros to the company Expo Srl, of which the commissioner Mirabella was a partner, for the provision of services not necessary for the organization of the event ». This is what we read in the document published by the Public Prosecutor of Catania.