Indicted for defamation of the Anti-Mafia Commission

The journalist Paolo Borrometi allegedly accused them of forgery regarding the date of publication of a post

(ANSA) – RAGUSA, 9th SEPT – The Ragusa Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the direct summons to trial for the journalist Paolo Borrometi for defamation of members of the Anti-Mafia commission of the Sicilian Region and its then president Claudio Fava. The decree, which anticipates the assessment of the investigating judge, sets the first hearing of the trial, before a single judge, for June 8th 2023. At the centre of the proceedings is a post from 2020 on Facebook in which Borrometi replied “to the accusation of not having published”, on the Laspia.it web-site, “the pro Scicli appeal against the dissolution” of the Municipality of Ragusa, defining everything as “false, very false “.

The journalist invited others to search for it on Google and, he wrote again, “you will see that the publication of that document on March 15th 2015 was published by me – I repeat – published by me. I published that document “.”And instead in the report of the Sicilian Anti-mafia Commission”, the journalist added on the social network, “it is said that ‘Borrometi did not publish it”. And he asked: “why in the report of the Commission chaired by Fava is this clear untruth repeated?”. For the Public Prosecutor of Ragusa, “the publication of the article appeared indeed on the online site La Spia between 17.59 on the 26th February 2020 (or at the end of Borrometi’s hearing before the parliamentary commission) and 19.47 on the 27th February 2020 and not on March 15th 2015 “.

In the trial, the president of the Commission, Claudio Fava, and the members of the Sicilian Anti-Mafia, Rosanna Cannata, Nicola D’Agostino, Gaetano Galvagno, Annunziata Luisa Lanteri, Margherita La Rocca and Giuseppe Zitelli are considered to have been offended. (ANSA).

Paolo Borrometi’s lawyer: an ignominious campaign to discredit a journalist

(ANSA) – RAGUSA, 9th SEPT – The lawyer Fabio Repici, lawyer for the journalist Paolo Borrometi writes “The conditions for the holding of a trial against Paolo Borrometi for an invalid hypothesis of a non-existent crime exist” and “I will submit the facts to the Prosecuting Magistrate” to assess whether the issuance of the decree of summons for trial, in front of the findings of the file, may fall within the area of discretionary assessments that a prosecutor makes at the end of the preliminary investigations or if instead there are elements to consider inadequate the actions of Dr. D’Anna as head of a prosecutor’s office and Dr. Monego as prosecutor “.

Regarding the Public Prosecutor of Ragusa issuance of a decree of summons for defamation against the Anti-Mafia of the Sicilian Region, Repici spoke of an “ignominious campaign to discredit an upright journalist, victim of a striking case of character assassination that has gone on for some years with unparalleled virulence “.

“The lawyer Alessandro Vitale and I – adds the criminal lawyer – will face the trial serenely, where the Court of Ragusa will take note not of the absence of evidence against Borrometi, but of the existence of evidence that demonstrates the absolute falsity of the disputed facts. Maybe it will be an opportunity to identify those responsible for the criminal hacking activity against him “.

“After the lawsuits and during the preliminary investigations – underlines the lawyer Repici – we had documented to the Public Prosecutor that in the period shortly before the hearing of Paolo Borrometi before the Commission, the online newspaper of which he was the chief editor had been the target of a very serious hacking operation. This is not the thesis of Paolo Borrometi’s defence counsel but the conclusion reached by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The disputed publication which Regional Anti-Mafia Commission claims was never published was, however, actually published on March 15th 2015. That article after the hacker intrusion had been removed from the visible articles and relegated to the “trash” of the site where it was recovered by the sole technical consultant who from April 2020 was able to officially access and inspect the computer system used by Borrometi.

The evidence has been taken – the lawyer still writes – from a witness who had actually read in 2015 on the Borrometi website the article that in 2020 according to the Regional Anti-Mafia Commission had never been published “. The criminal lawyer recalls that “from March 15th 2015 to February 2020, no one had noticed or complained of that alleged non-publication”, because “it had appeared on March 15th 2015”. (ANSA). wt