Zali case: committees prepare final report

The two Ticino parliamentary subcommittees tasked with high oversight in the Zali case have completed gathering information. The committees have been working together for several weeks and are now ready to draft their final report.

At the centre of the inquiry is a meeting requested by State Councillor Claudio Zali with several cantonal officials. The meeting discussed the presence, at the Farera prison, of a 14-year-old boy, the son of an acquaintance of Zali. Those attending included Frida Andreotti, head of the Justice Division, juvenile judge Fabiola Gnesa, and Stefano Laffranchini, head of the prison system.

The subcommittees must now determine whether this meeting amounts to interference and a violation of the separation of powers. Cristina Maderni, of the Justice and Rights subcommittee, told SEIDISERA: “Ci prendiamo un paio di settimane per iniziare a fare questo tipologia di lavoro. Poi ci riuniremo cercando di accelerare e di arrivare in tempi rapidi.” (“We are taking a couple of weeks to begin this kind of work. Then we will meet again, trying to speed up and reach a conclusion quickly.”) Maderni added that the committee prefers not to give exact deadlines, in order to work seriously.

Fiorenzo Dadò, president of the Control Committee, also confirmed that the work proceeds in stages: first gathering the material, then discussing the report and its conclusions.

During the last session of the Grand Council, there was no general debate on the case. Maderni and Dadò hope that the report from the two subcommittees will instead be debated by the full Parliament. Maderni said she was confident a debate would take place on the oversight work carried out in recent months.

MPS wants Gobbi included too

The Movement for Socialism (MPS) has meanwhile formally requested that the oversight inquiry be extended to State Councillor Norman Gobbi. The party wants to clarify whether Gobbi, after receiving a report by email in 2021, should have flagged possible misconduct by his colleague Zali.

The request was forwarded to the Grand Council's Presidential Office, which will pass it on to the Control Committee. It will be up to that committee to decide whether to extend the inquiry. Dadò, who also chairs the Control Committee, said it is by no means certain that the oversight inquiry will be extended to Gobbi.