Wife of Ticino judge set free after police investigation
The wife of the former Ticinese criminal court judge, Franco Verda, who is being held in police custody on corruption charges, has been released. Desirée Rinaldi, who is a lawyer, was set free on Friday.
Canton Ticino’s special prosecutor, Luciano Giudici, said that she no longer posed a risk to the investigation and could therefore be released into freedom.
Since her arrest on August 7, she was detained in the women’s wing of the La Stampa cantonal prison near Lugano.
On Wednesday Rinaldi and the alleged boss of a cigarette-smuggling ring, Gerardo Cuomo, were cross-examined together. She was Cuomo’s former lawyer.
On Thursday, Rinaldi’s husband, who is accused of breaching confidentiality rules, partiality in court and accepting bribes, was questioned in court together with Gerardo Cuomo.
The cross-examination was thought to have centred on a sum of SFr350, 000 handed over by Cuomo to Rinaldi through her husband, Verda. The money was supposedly to be used as a cash injection for a mineral water company, Acque minerali San Bernardino.
The special prosecutor, Guidici, also said that Verda and Cuomo were no longer barred from holding meetings with their defence lawyers. There had been an embargo on such meetings in place since the cross-examinations began.
swissinfo with agencies
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