Ottaviano Del Turco, farewell to an enlightened trade unionist tormented by bad justice

''Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven''. (Matthew 5.1-12). Ottaviano Del Turco has left us. The Big Sleep freed him from the suffering that had robbed him, little by little, of a life worth living. Ottaviano will continue to live in the memory and affection of his children, his family, of Cristina who looked after him throughout his ordeal, of his friends and companions who did not look the other way at the time of his tragedy. 

Ottaviano, in fact, did not die on August 24th (the Providence of the trade unionists decided that he would end his days shortly after the anniversary of the death of Bruno Trentin with whom he had worked both at Fiom and in CGIL for many long and troubled years). Del Turco began to die on July 14, 2008 when a team from the Guardia di Finanza showed up in his retreat in Collelongo (a town in Abruzzo along a road that ends there) to arrest him on the basis ofthe very serious and defamatory accusations for which, according to the Prosecutor's Office, there was ''overwhelming evidence'' which never emerged or ascertained during very long investigations and international letters rogatory. 

The trade union and political career of Ottaviano Del Turco

Then Ottaviano Del Turco was president of the Abruzzo Region. This was the last stage of a dazzling cursus honorum. Ottaviano del Turco was a great trade unionist, belonged to that Olympus of heroes which included unforgettable names such as Fernando Santi, Luciano Lama, Bruno Trentin, Pierre Carniti, Piero Boni, Giorgio Benvenuto and many others who made the history of the union (and the country) in the second half of the last century. Probably, these names, which remind me of many years of life lived intensely, mean almost nothing today.  

It was also Del Turco parliamentarian and European, finance minister, writer and painter until the disease took over even the brush, the canvas and the palette. 

Judicial vicissitudes

The legal case of Ottaviano Del Turco went on for a decade. The courts that examined the case have, in practice, ''browsed through the daisy chain'' of the crimes of which he was accused: corruption, extortion, fraud, forgery and criminal association. And obviously for every ''petal'' torn off there was a reduction in the sentence. At first instance, Del Turco was sentenced to nine years and six months. In the second degree trial, 21 out of 26 episodes of crime were removed, and the sentence was more than halved: four years. After a referral to another Court and a new judgment, the Court of Cassation finally reduced the prison sentence to three years and eleven months, the disqualification from holding public offices from perpetual to five years, while canceled the criminal conspiracy. 

At the accusations of the former president of the Region, one last ''petal'' remained attached to the corolla: Del Turco was found guilty of ''undue inducement to give or promise benefits'' and definitively convicted. Induction is a new crime, introduced by the Severino law in 2012, to punish extortion (the public official or person in charge of a public service who requests a donation) even when there is no threat or violence.

Attention, because the case is suggestive. Especially if we relate it to the story for which Ottaviano was investigated, tried and convicted: having extorted a sum of money from a private healthcare boss in Abruzzo which - during the trial process - decreased from six million to eight hundred thousand euros , of which no trace has ever been found. 

But how do you commit a crime of ''undue inducement''? Not having a robust culture in the field of criminal law (it is a serious mistake because this discipline has now become an integral part of everyone's daily life) I went to consult the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Cassation. And I found the following reason: 

''According to the United Sections of the Court of Cassation ( ……. ) the case of undue inducement referred to in art. 319-quater cod. pen. is characterized by non-irresistible pressure on the part of the public official or the person in charge of a public service, which leaves the recipient of the same a significant margin of self-determination and is combined with the pursuit of an undue advantage, while in the crime of extortion pursuant to art. 317 cod. pen., we are in the presence of a public official's conduct that radically limits the recipient's freedom of self-determination''. 

In Del Turco/Angelini case (this is the name of the owner of a group of private clinics who reported Del Turco and who is known to the country's prisons) there was no 'undue advantage'', given that the Regional Council never withdrew the resolution with which the relationship between public and private healthcare was reviewed, recovering several tens of millions of euros from the Region's coffers. As for the ''non-irresistible pressure that leaves the recipient of the same a significant margin of self-determination'', I tried to get an idea of ​​what my friend Ottaviano's conduct might have been to incur a case of crime of 'gentle extortion'' (from gentleman thief). Since a bag of apples played an important role in the story, it may be that each apple (rather than demonstrating the existence of the law of gravity) served to quantify the sum that Octavian would have liked. There remains, then, one aspect to clarify: how can a citizen be accused of actions dating back to before 2008 (Ottaviano was arrested at dawn on 14 July of that year) which did not constitute a crime already foreseen by the law, because was induction introduced with law n.190 of 2012? 

Del Turco wanted to ask for the trial to be reviewed

With his lawyers and his son Guido, Ottaviano had found elements to request a review of the process, but the illness had outpaced the judicial bureaucracy, incapacitating him. When he had a margin of clarity left he had had to endure the affront to populism sided against the annuities of former parliamentarians. Already suffering from cancer and other disabling pathologies, his allowance was frozen because he was definitively condemned by a Court of Justice. 

The "managers" of politics and the press did not give up on pinning him down on the bed of suffering, asking for his revocation. Fortunately, this aroused widespread indignation which shut their mouths. 

Pd and CGIL are the two big absentees

In his tragedy there were two major absentees: the Democratic Party and the CGIL. Octavian was a purebred socialist, son of a socialist, eighth of brothers also all socialists who, one at a time, had emigrated to Rome in search of a better life. In his youth he had worked in Roman federation of the PSI, together with Dino Marianetti (another great forgotten CGIL trade unionist), he then moved on to the union. 

Fu secretary of the PSI after Craxi and Benvenuto, trying to save what can be saved from a party struggling with ethnic cleansing Mani Pulite. Among the founders and parliamentarian of the Democratic Party, when he fell into the ambush of the Abruzzo justice system he was abandoned like a dog on the highway. 

Some friends remained close to him, including the writer and Michele Magno, as well as many socialists of the CGIL from their ''mossy atriums and crumbling holes'' where they had found refuge. Fortunately, faced with the solemn moment of death, the CGIL remembered those who dedicated the best part of their lives to her. 

“On behalf of myself and our entire organization I express deep condolences and closeness to his family.” This is what we read in a note from general secretary of the CGIL Maurizio Landini. “He was a leading manager of our union – he adds – until he held the position of deputy general secretary from 1983 to 1992 in a complex phase in the history of the CGIL and the confederal union, where ideas and proposals of different models were compared trade unions and the relationship between trade unions and political forces". 
The funeral funeral will take place on Sunday at 10 am in Collelongo, where he will be buried among his loved ones. We'll see if, in agreement with the family, the Senate and the CGIL want to organize a moment of commemoration. As an old song says, old soldiers, honored with glories and challenges, proud to show the scars of their wounds, do not die; they only vanish in the fog. To find themselves in a corner of the Elysian Fields, reserved for them, where they will spend the days remembering, in friendship and joy, the stories and episodes of an existence full of hopes and adventures. May the earth be light on you, my friend.