Ex-Abruzzo Governor gets house arrest

Former Abruzzo governor Ottaviano Del Turco was granted house arrest on Monday after a preliminary hearing judge decided he was no longer in a position to manipulate evidence against him in a corruption case.
Del Turco, 63, was arrested July 14 in connection with an alleged public health scam in the central-eastern Italian region in which he is suspected of taking a bribe of almost six million euros.
Speaking to the press after his release from prison, Del Turco said: ''I was treated very well and an ready to go to trial''.
Three other people arrested at the same time as Del Turco were also granted house arrested on Monday.
A total of 11 people were arrested and 25 others were placed under investigation for suspected kickbacks, fraud, corruption, embezzlement and money laundering involving some 14 million euros.
Most of the officials involved were members of the Democratic Party (PD), Italy's largest opposition party.
Del Turco, one of Italy's most prominent former Socialists, is a member of the PD's 45-strong national council and was its leader in the Abruzzo region.
After a career in trade unionism Del Turco rose to the top of the late Bettino Craxi's Socialist Party before it was swept away in the Bribesville scandals of 1992-'94.
He stayed on the centre left and served as head of parliament's Anti-Mafia Commission between 1996 and 2000, when he was named finance minister.
He was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 but stepped down after his election as president of the Abruzzo region in 2005.
Del Turco resigned as Abruzzo president three days after his arrest.