Gian Gaetano Bellavia Under Investigation for Violation of Privacy Law
Gian Gaetano Bellavia, an accountant and consultant to prosecutors, judges, and the program Report, has been registered by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office for a hypothesis of violation of the privacy law in the case of the archive with more than a million files and a so-called “papello” with a list of names of entrepreneurs, politicians, and VIPs.
Background of the Investigation
Among those files, which a former collaborator now on trial is said to have copied and stolen, Bellavia’s defense had explained that there are no “dossiers or any improper material” which goes beyond her “professional activity”. There never was, Bellavia said through the lawyer Luca Ricci last January 8, “processing of data for purposes other than those related to the professional and/or consultancy role”. Furthermore, “documents sent by the program Report to Bellavia were stolen, which is exactly the opposite of what some have claimed”.
Reaction from Bellavia and His Lawyer
“Violation of privacy? Put it this way, it’s very vague, I don’t know what to say. It’s not a crime, you need an article of the penal code to understand what the investigation is – Bellavia’s reply to Agi – Illicit data processing? It’s not technically possible”, he adds. Bellavia’s lawyer, Luca Ricci, explained that “We have not received any formal document from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Milan, but Bellavia had long hoped to be able to provide its complete version of the facts and to clarify the correctness of its actions and in this sense it had, through me, already requested the prosecutors”.
Investigation Details and Next Steps
The Prosecutor’s Office directed by Marcello Viola with the pm Eugenio Fusco and Paola Biondolillo has already sent the former collaborator to trial with direct summons Valentina Varisco accused of unauthorized access to a computer system and embezzlement (offended parties Bellavia and the firm partner Ferradini). At the same time, those 36 pages had emerged from the documents, without “any annotation on the deposit and on the author” and ended up in the prosecutor’s file, with that list of names. The pre-trial hearing for Varisco (defended by the lawyer Andrea Puccio), after the direct summons to trial, is scheduled for 10 July in Milan.
Controversy and Reactions from Public Figures
Already in January it became known that the Prosecutor’s Office was considering opening a ‘parallel’ file on the Bellavia-Varisco case, to investigate the affair of that 36-page ‘paper’ and those files, on which investigators have carried out checks in recent weeks. Siegfried Ranucci commented on the news of the registration of the accountant, saying “The newspaper theorem falls about our consultant Gian Gaetano Bellavia. No charges of dossier or espionage center. But of violation of privacy due to the law on data retention”. In response, Maurizio Gasparri stated “I am pleased to learn that Gian Gaetano Bellavia has been registered by the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office as being under investigation for a possible violation of the privacy law”.
Conclusion and Further Developments
The investigation is ongoing, and Bellavia’s lawyer hopes that his client will be able to clarify his correctness to the prosecutors soon. The case has sparked controversy and reactions from public figures, with some calling for apologies and others defending Bellavia’s actions. For more information on this developing story, visit Here