Anti-mafia judge jailed for corruption
An Italian anti-mafia judge has been sent to prison for four years for accepting luxury hotel stays, holidays, flights and the services of Eastern European call girls - all paid for by the mafia.
Giusti was a judge in Reggio Calabria (pictured), the regional capital of Calabria on the toe of the Italian boot. Photo: ALAMY
By Nick Squires, Rome
4:01PM BST 28 Sep 2012
Giancarlo Giusti, whom prosecutors described as being “obsessed with sex”, received 70,000 euros worth of favours from the 'Ndrangheta mafia of Calabria, including what he described as “notte di amore” - nights of passion - with prostitutes.
The 45-year-old recounted one of the most memorable evenings in his diary, saying he had spent the night with a call girl called “Natasha” and that they had both been “blind drunk”.
It had been “a crazy Friday night full of women and wine,” he confided in his journal.
The prostitutes, holidays and hotels were paid for by a mob boss, Giulio Lampada, who was arrested along with the judge in March 2011.
Giusti claimed that he had no idea that Mr Lampada was a mafia godfather, instead believing that he was “a successful slot machine entrepreneur”.
He later admitted the whole racket, saying he had been sucked into relations with the mafia during “a dark period of my life.”
He admitted that he had taken part in “disreputable amusements” and begged forgiveness from “the entire Italian magistracy”.
Giusti was a judge in Reggio Calabria, the regional capital of Calabria on the toe of the Italian boot and the power base of the 'Ndrangheta, one of the most powerful of Italy’s four mafias.
He also presided over courts in the nearby coastal town of Palmi.
He was sentenced to four years behind bars after a court in Milan found him guilty of corruption and accepting money from the mafia.
It was not clear if his close links to the mafia had influenced any of his judgments in court.
The case is just the latest in a string of scandals to have shaken the faith of Italians in their public officials.
The regional government of Lazio, which encompasses Rome, has all but imploded over a scandal involving embezzlement, misuse of taxpayers’ money and a decadent toga party attended by men wearing pig’s masks and young women dressed as Roman goddesses.
Similar accusations of financial malpractice and graft have been levelled at politicians in Lombardy in the north, and Sicily and Campania in the south.
In Rome this week the head of the postal service in the Italian Senate was arrested on suspicion of trafficking cocaine supplied by a gang of Italian and Albanian drug dealers.
