Meloni's top man in EU parliament settles corruption case with prosecutors
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's top representative in the European Parliament said on Thursday he had reached a deal with prosecutors to settle an alleged political corruption case.
Carlo Fidanza, the speaker for Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy party in the EU assembly, emphasised in a statement that the settlement implied no admission of guilt.
Under the deal, backed by Milan prosecutors but still needing final approval from a judge, Fidanza would receive a suspended 16-month jail term, legal sources said.
The suspended sentence would not bar the lawmaker from running in next year's EU parliament elections, the sources added.
Fidanza said he accepted it "reluctantly" to "avoid a long trial with an uncertain outcome", even as he reiterated his innocence, in order to focus on his re-election campaign.
He was investigated for hiring the 17-year-old son of a party colleague as an assistant, in what Fidanza insisted was part of a political deal, rather than a case of corruption.
Fidanza, 46, is working on behalf of Meloni to strike a deal between the European conservatives group and the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) after the 2024 EU elections.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi and Alvise Armellini; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
