Gobbi clarifies what he knew in 2021 about the Zali case

Norman Gobbi issued a statement on Thursday to clarify the information he had in 2021 about the 52-year-old woman found dead last August in the waters of Lake Ceresio at Melide. The woman had made public the audio recordings that led to Claudio Zali's resignation from the Ticino government. The day before, the case had been widely discussed in the Gran Consiglio, where the president of the government, Marina Carobbio Guscetti, answered the various pending parliamentary motions on the matter.

The two contacts in 2021

Gobbi says the woman contacted him in early September 2021 through a private message on social media. She informed him that she had filed a criminal complaint against his colleague, without specifying the nature of the facts: the matter was therefore already in the hands of the competent judicial authority.

In late September, Gobbi then received an email from the woman, asking him to intervene with Zali so that he would offer her written apologies. She told him she had also informed the newspaper La Regione and expressed her intention to make public the information about the matter between her and Zali, without specifying which facts she was referring to. According to Gobbi, neither communication made any reference to the possible commission of sexual offences, which are prosecuted ex officio.

Given that the woman had already filed a complaint and that the judiciary was already handling the matter, it was discussed internally within the Lega party, including with Zali. The then state councillor denied the existence of any relevant facts, attributing the matter to dynamics within his private life. Gobbi states that he received no further reports afterwards, nor any communication from the competent judicial authority indicating pending proceedings related to those facts.

In the statement, Gobbi firmly disputes the reconstructions published recently. He reiterates that the information he received in 2021 contained no element suggesting sexual offences or other crimes prosecuted ex officio, and stresses that the woman had already told him she had reported the facts to the judiciary. The clarification, he concludes, is meant to represent accurately and faithfully what was actually brought to his knowledge at the time.