Italian politicians held for ‘vote-buying’

Cosenza (Italy), July 21 (IANS/AKI) Police in Italy's southern Calabria region on Friday arrested a local councillor and a former mayor in the coastal town of Amantea on suspicion of buying votes in local elections last month and of attempted extortion.

The local councillor, who is a member of the ruling coalition in Amantea, also faces charges of attempted domestic violence, police said.

The two suspects allegedly pressured a local resident to induce his girlfriend and her family to vote for the councillor's electoral list, warning that if they did not, the woman's temporary teaching contract at a nursery school in Amantea would not be renewed.

The councillor also told the woman's parents he would take legal action if they released a recording of a conversation where the alleged threats against her were made, according to investigators.

Police in the province of Cosenza said made the arrests on the orders of magistrates in the nearby coastal town of Paola.

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