ROME, July 20 (Xinhua) -- An Italian court sentenced leaders and members of a mafia-like network based in the capital city up to 20 years in prison on Thursday.
Overall, 46 defendants stood trial for allegedly being part of a ring that syphoned millions of euros of public funds by rigging contracts in Rome.
The leader of the gang -- 59-year-old, one-eyed, former neo-fascist Massimo Carminati -- was given 20 years in prison. His right-hand man, Salvatore Buzzi, was sentenced to 19 years in jail.
Buzzi was the chief of leftist cooperatives operating in various social sectors, such as managing migrant reception centers and reintegrating ex-convicts into society.
All but three of the 46 defendants were convicted, although with lesser sentences. These included a 10-year prison term for Franco Panzironi, former chief executive officer of Rome's public waste management firm AMA, who stood accused of taking bribes for arranging a public tender in favor of Buzzi.
The probe involved common gangsters, former far-right activists, entrepreneurs, white-collar workers, public employees in the municipality, and local politicians from across the spectrum.
Some 22 of the defendants -- including Carminati and Buzzi -- faced the most serious allegations of mafia association and other mafia-related crimes.
According to the Italian penal code, such charges -- if proved in court -- bring about much tougher sentences.
The case has become known as the "Mafia Capital" scandal, and the trial has represented the biggest judiciary effort so far against organized crime in Rome. Yet, the first-grade court on Thursday did not recognize the "mafia-like" nature of the criminal organization.
According to chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone who led the probe, the network represented a new type of mafia genuinely rooted in Rome, and not subordinate to any of Italy's three traditional mobs.
Carminati, the leading figure, had been jailed in 1998 as a member of a common criminal gang called "Banda della Magliana", which dominated the criminal life in Rome in the 1970s and 1980s. He also has a long history of violence as a former member of far-right factions, including terrorist neo-fascist NAR group. Carminati lost his eye during a shoot-out with police in the early 1980s.
The trial began in November 2015 at the "bunker" courtroom in Rome's Rebibbia prison. It included some 230 hearings, involved four prosecutors, and over 60 defense lawyers.
