ROME. Aboubakar Soumahoro dropped out of the group. The former trade unionist of the laborers who entered Montecitorio as an “independent” left the group of the Green-Left Alliance in the Chamber, “astonished and embittered by the absence of human solidarity and political support”, and joined the Misto. “There is no Soumahoro case” is the title of the long dossier that he publishes on his website to announce his farewell and clarify some of the events concerning him and his family, involved in an investigation by the Latina prosecutor. The distance with the travel companions who nominated him is now unbridgeable. “I’m not at all surprised, because he never gave us enough explanations – says Greens co-spokesman Angelo Bonelli – I am however humanly disappointed”.
he folder
In the voluminous dossier, Soumahoro reiterates his non-involvement in the judicial matter: «I have not been and have not been investigated, I am not accused of anything, I have nothing to do with any problems in those cooperatives. Yet my name was on the pages of all the newspapers for 2 months, on all televisions every night, and I was systematically smeared and defamed. It was pure looting.” He speaks of his wife, “provocatively nicknamed “lady Gucci”, she was at the center of a series of heavy comments and insinuations”. He returns to the “right to elegance” declaimed on TV and which has earned him buckets of criticism, even fierce ones. “I meant everyone’s right to dress as they see fit. However, I find it really strange that I am asked to express a value judgment about photos of my partner dating back 4 years before I met her».
The investigation
The Latina investigation focuses on the two pro-migrant cooperatives Karibu and Consorzio Aid and sees six people under investigation, connected in various capacities to the top management: Soumahoro’s mother-in-law Marie Terese Mukamitsindo, the wife of the deputy Liliane Murekatete and two of her brothers, as well as two collaborators. The hypothesized crimes are linked to alleged false invoices to evade taxes. In addition, there are dozens of former employees who have been left without pay for months and checks on the alleged poor quality of the services offered to migrant guests.
The reply
Soumahoro strikes back blow by blow, tries to explain his truth against what he defines as the “disinformation campaign of the year”. He says he had learned of the lack of wages for Karibu employees in 2021: “I asked for clarifications and was informed that all the necessary money had not yet been received” from public bodies, but “everything would be resolved in a reasonable time”. He denies irregularities in the funds and budgets of the Lega Braccianti; everything is in order, even the mortgage on the house (“since 2008 I have worked as an employee of the Rdb, from the end of 2018 to February 2022 I was a columnist for Espresso”). He speaks of “unjustified persistence” against him, also dictated by racism: “A black person is fine as long as he is a “yard nigger”, as long as he protests with banners, which I have done a thousand times and will never stop doing, if he is poor and on the margins. But if he tries to make a leap in quality, it immediately disturbs »