Giulia Adamo

Giulia Adamo was indicted for extortion on 30 June 2006. The indictment alleged that she had exerted pressure on the directors of a boarding school ("Convitto per audiofonolesi") in Marsala, in order to have the rector replaced with a different individual, named by her.[13] After the usual hearings, appeals and delays she secured an acquittal from the Court of Appeal in Palermo. However, on 26 January 2012 the Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome annulled the Palermo decision and sent the matter back for retrial.[14]

In 2010 Adamo was condemned by the Rome-based Court of Audit which required her to pay back a total amount of at least 385,000 Euros to four different institutions with which, as president of the Trapani, she had had dealings since 2000. The payments in question had been identified as consultancy fees, but the definition was one that the court rejected. Reports reflect an opinion on the part of the court and commentators that even by the standards of the time and place the amounts involved were large. Some of the stronger descriptions applied in connection with the court judgment included "inescusabile leggerezza e negligenza" (loosely, "inexcusable casual negligence") and "il vero e proprio dolo" (loosely, "the real unadulterated fraudulence").[15]

On 14 January 2014 reports emerged of an investigation launched by the public prosecutor in Palermo into suspicions involving 500,000 Euros of public money allegedly diverted for private use. The investigation was reportedly launched in 2012 and concerned the so-called "ARS coalition" group of deputies among whom Adamo was a leading figure in the Sicilian Regional Assembly during the political upheavals of 2010. Adamo's first response when asked about a jewel which she had purchased (it was said) while on holiday in Brazil during 2011 was a question: "Ma quando mai?" ("But when?"). On receiving a persuasive answer on that point, she agreed that she had purchased the item, but explained she had purchased the jewel to have it set in a cup to be gifted to the son of Nino Strano, another important and respected Sicilian politician. In short the jewel was purchased in order to be part of a wedding present. The prosecutor's office naturally asked both Nino Strano and his son for confirmation of this explanation. It turned out that neither man could remember having received the gift, even though there had not been so many (wedding presents): "... E regali non ne abbiamo ricevuto tanti".[16]

On 16 July 2014 the "Prima Sezione" of the Palermo Appeal Court sentenced Giulia Adamo to a prison term of two years and ten months on the charge of attempted extortion. There was also a five year ban on holding public office.[17] A couple of days later, in an application of the recently enacted Severino Laws, Adamo was suspended from her mayoral duties for eighteen months.[18] She resigned the office permanently a week or so later.[12] On 6 May 2015 the Court of Cassation "definitively acquitted" Adamo, which meant cancellation of the prison sentence which had been imposed for attempted extortion on 16 July 2014. The ban on holding public office seems also to have been implicitly rescinded.[19]

On 16 November 2015 Adamo was acquitted on charges involving disrespecting a public official ("oltraggio a pubblico ufficiale") - a relatively recent addition to the Italian schedule of indictable crimes. The court also acquitted her co-accused, Gregorio Saladino. The case arose out of a complaint from a traffic policemen who testified that had asked the two of them to move a scooter which they had parked in the Via Garibaldi in front of the old market building. Their reaction was to recommend that he might wish to perform his duties in another part of the town. The traffic policeman alleged that Giulia Adamo, in concert with her companion, a municipal councillor called Gregorio Saladino, had reacted towards him in a verbally threatening manner. Luigi Cassata, Adamo's defence lawyer, was able to reassure the court that his client had not offended anyone. Whatever she might have said to the good officer was intended simply to restore the excellent performance and efficiency of administrative duties in respect of traffic policing. The defence lawyer representing Gregorio Saladina was a man called Sebastiano Genna, whose arguments were not dissimilar in character. He also pointed out that there had been plenty of other scooters parked in the same place at the same time. Judge Sara Quittino, sitting alone, was evidently persuaded.[20]

On 12 July 2016 an indictment was issued against eleven deputies or former deputies, including Giulia Adamo, by Riccardo Ricciardi, a Palermo plenary court judge ("Giudice dell'udienza preliminare"). The indictment concerned embezzlement allegations involving expenses claims submitted by members of the Regional Assembly. In June 2017 it was reported that the Court of Cassation had rejected some of the embezzlement allegations included in the indictment. That meant that five of those named had been acquitted of all the embezzlement charges alleged. For six others, although some of the charges against them had been investigated and found insufficiently persuasive, there were other embezzlement charges that were still listed on what survived of Judge Ricciardi's original indictment. Giuilia Adamo was one of the six Regional Assembly deputies or former deputies for whom charges remained on the indictment.[21]