Former mayor of Rome and “Independence!” leader Gianni Alemanno was arrested on New Year’s Eve in Rome under the allegation of having violated community service terms. Alemanno had been sentenced to an 18-month term, to perform community service, for a white collar crime of “influence peddling” when he was mayor of Rome. Members of the Independence! Movement say the real reason for the Rome prosecutors’ action is to act against Alemanno’s recent political campaign against NATO’s war in Ukraine, and being pro-Palestine, pro-BRICS and anti-EU. They point to the silly decision to punish Alemanno when only a few months of his term were left. The political intention is shown by the prosecutors’ motivation that Alemanno’s election campaign engagements, which took him out of town, are not “work” engagements. Moreover, he had had a Christmas dinner with colleagues and friends on Dec. 26, which was also used as a pretext. In such cases, a warning is usually issued, but in Alemanno’s case they adopted an urgent procedure, and having him escorted to Rebibbia jail in Rome, on Dec. 31.
Sources close to Alemanno, however, are convinced that he will soon be released and that the action will boomerang, giving Alemanno and his movement more visibility. Alemanno has received solidarity messages from Marco Rizzo, leader of the left-wing Democrazia Sovrana e Popolare movement, who spoke of “political persecution,” and also by right-wing author Marcello Veneziani, who spoke of a “barbaric, factional and inhuman society.”
