Dori (Avs): “Fontana’s move to block chats is damaging to Delmastro”

Montecitorio is caught between chat messages and letters. “But in doing so, the majority is harming Andrea Delmastro,” says Denis Dori, an Avs MP and chair of the Chamber of Deputies’ Authorisations Committee, speaking to Il Foglio after the committee’s offices prevented him yesterday morning from viewing the documentation relating to the Delmastro case. Paradoxically, he argues, it is he and the other five opposition MPs – who spent hours waiting in the office yesterday – who are actually helping the former FdI undersecretary. However, the CD, which arrived at the Chamber of Deputies yesterday along with a letter signed by prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, remained in the safe. This included the chat messages that the former undersecretary for Justice exchanged with restaurateur Mauro Caroccia, who is under investigation for money laundering and the use of front companies. “The staff told us they had been instructed not to allow us to view the documentation.” Why? “I wrote immediately to President Fontana, who told me that the refusal to grant authorisation is implicitly implied in the letter he sent to me yesterday, stating that it would be better for the Rules Committee to give its opinion first regarding access to the chat logs. But then,” asks Dori, “if we cannot view that CD, why did Fontana send it to us?” The confusion is complete.

Yet Delmastro himself forwarded the chats at the centre of the recent controversy to Lo Voi yesterday, ‘having nothing to hide’, he stated in a note. According to Dori, “Fontana has overstepped the mark with regard to the prerogatives held by members of my Executive Committee. By doing so, the majority is certainly not doing Delmastro any favours; it is worsening his position and filling it with doubts and suspicions,” says the Avs MP. “One is led to believe that even within the majority there is no rock-solid stance on the matter. They are preventing us from viewing the documents even though it is our right, yet yesterday FdI MP Sara Kelany said she had no issues and that everything was transparent. We shall see how consistent the vote in the Chamber is.” It was certainly not the only anomaly observed yesterday. Following the negative opinion from the Authorisations Committee, the Chamber was due to decide whether or not to authorise the use of the chat logs. An hour before the vote, however, Speaker Fontana received a letter in which Rome’s public prosecutor, Lo Voi, once again reminded the Chamber of the importance of giving the green light to the acquisition of the chat records, enclosing the CD which nobody has been able to see today. The result: the vote was postponed and the matter has been referred back to the Committee.

“I cannot say whether this is an anomaly or not. To be honest, I am not aware of the timeframe for acquiring the materials,” admits Dori, who nevertheless denies the suggestion that the prosecutor wishes to influence the proceedings in court. “Lo Voi has written that he is not sure whether those chat logs, which were handed over to him by Caroccia’s defence team, actually represent everything on the seized device. Some of those chat logs may have been deleted; there may not be a perfect match. It is a request that also serves to safeguard and protect Delmastro himself.” Lo Voi and the opposition are closer to the former Meloni-aligned undersecretary than the Meloni supporters themselves. Whilst speaking to us, Dori is drafting a letter – yet another in this saga – to send to Fontana, explaining the precedents (the Almasri and Ruby cases) in which the Rules Committee had access to material sent by the Speaker of the Chamber. But he does not sound at all confident. “Within the Rules Committee, there is a majority and an opposition. And unfortunately, I believe that, even with Fontana’s intervention, the direction taken has been more political than technical,” concludes Dori. “I fear that the opportunity to view the chat logs will be denied.”