Perugia investigates the Rome Prosecutor's Office: the complaint of the Department of Security Information and the leak of confidential documents 

The Perugia Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a file following thecomplaint filed by DIS (Department of Security Information) on the alleged revelations of confidential information communicated to the Rome Prosecutor's Office, headed by Francesco Lo Voi.

According to the office of the Perugia prosecutor, Raffaele Cantone, it is not possible to disclose the details of the file since this information is covered by investigative secrecy. The case has been opened "in strict compliance with the criteria of art. 335 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by the Cartabia reform“, and is currently being filed against unknown persons.

The investigation concerns the publication of intelligence reports, in particular those of AISI (Internal Security and Information Agency), relating to Gaetano Caputi, chief of staff of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

According to the DIS, the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office had improperly released a confidential document.

The press release from the Perugia Public Prosecutor's Office

In the official press release, Raffaele Cantone explained that the proceedings were assigned to a deputy prosecutor according to automatic criteria and that, given the sensitivity of the case, his co-designation was deemed appropriate. Cantone clarified that, in the initial phase, the file will be subject to preliminary checks to ascertain the consistency of the evidence and evaluate any acquisition of documents through the judicial police.

At the center of the investigation

The Perugia investigation suggests a possible violation of article 42, paragraph 8, of law 124/2007, which regulates the management of confidential information by the secret services. According to the DIS, the Rome Prosecutor's Office should have taken greater precautions to prevent the dissemination of the document classified as “confidential”.

At the heart of the investigation are three accesses made in 2023 by AISI agents to the Revenue Agency database, “Punto Fisco”, to obtain information on Caputi. The confidential document, signed by AISI director Bruno Valensise, was subsequently attached to the closing documents of the preliminary investigations against some journalists of the newspaper Tomorrow, who then published part of the content in the newspaper.

The story: complaint and leak

The story originates from the complaint filed months ago by Gaetano Caputi to the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office after the publication of some articles about him. During the investigations, the prosecutor Maurizio Arcuri discovered the accesses to the “Punto Fisco” database carried out by agents of the AISI (Internal Information and Security Agency). The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office has therefore requested official clarifications from the DISThe response came in the form of a ten-page document, containing details of the reasons and methods of the investigations carried out by the officers.

This document, classified as “confidential”, was included in the closing documents of the investigation and subsequently delivered to the lawyers of the journalists under investigation. It was from this file that the contents of the report reached the newspapers.

The defense of Lo Voi

Rome prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi has rejected all charges, claiming that there was no violation of the law.. In his opinion, in fact, the filing of confidential documents in the context of the investigations would have been legitimate, as it was guaranteed by the general law to protect the right of defense of the accused.

Lo Voi said he was available to clarify his office's position before COPASIR (Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic), considering it the "appropriate location” to address the case.

Next steps of the investigation

Although the investigation is still in the preliminary stages, there could be further developments in the coming weeks, and based on the evaluations of the prosecutor Cantone it will be possible to know if the actions of the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office could constitute a violation of the law on the management of confidential information.