Zali case: new complaint to judicial oversight body over prosecutor's office

The case involving Councillor of State Claudio Zali has widened to include the prosecutor's office. The parliamentary justice subcommittee responsible for oversight sent a complaint to the Council of the Magistracy on 27 August. The council, based in Lugano, holds disciplinary and supervisory authority over magistrates. The complaint concerns the conduct of Attorney General Andrea Pagani in a case dating back five years that had involved Zali.

Until now, political attention had focused on the councillor's involvement in the case of a 14-year-old held for almost a month in the Farera prison, at the centre of an investigation into abuse of office and attempted coercion linked to a meeting with prison management officials that Zali had requested. The new complaint concerns a different episode: attached to it is an email dated September 2021, seen by RSI, regarding Zali's conduct toward two women.

The president of the Council of the Magistracy, Damiano Stefani, told RSI he had immediately opened an inquiry. He added that he would issue his decision on the complaint within about ten days.

The attorney general's position

Attorney General Andrea Pagani repeatedly told RSI that he considers his position "limpida e pacifica" ("clear and unchallenged") and that the complaint raises no accusation against him. He has already made this case in his own submissions to the Council of the Magistracy. According to Pagani, the email did not contain sufficient indications of a crime to open an investigation. He also noted that the woman who wrote it, called in immediately to testify about its contents, refused to have her statement recorded.

The author of the email is the 52-year-old woman found dead on 18 August in the lake off Melide. She is the same person who had published recordings of phone calls with Zali, in which he was heard, among other things, urging violence against a woman. The investigation into alleged offences against sexual integrity involving the councillor also originated with her. Zali calls that complaint false, saying it is based on lies and that neither he nor the alleged victim ever admitted to any improper conduct.

The matter is likely to come up again in parliament on Tuesday, possibly in a general debate.