Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
AGRIGENTO – The latest judicial investigation by Agrigento magistrates was triggered by the award procedures through direct assignment of some of the city’s most visible services. The contracts for setting up Christmas lights in the centre and outskirts and the maintenance work on the multi-storey car park have in fact become the focus of an investigation by the Agrigento Public Prosecutor’s Office. The former mayor Franco Miccichè has been placed under investigation on charges of corruption and interference with the freedom of contract selection.
The alleged offences identified by investigators cover a period between December 2024 and February 2026. The investigation, coordinated by the public prosecutor Elettra Consoli and launched following a detailed formal complaint, has seen a significant acceleration in recent days.
Widespread searches and computer seizures
The warrants issued by the magistrate led to extensive searches that, in addition to the former first citizen, involved the former member of the municipal executive responsible for the budget Patrizia Lisci and two private entrepreneurs: Salvatore Alaimo, owner of a technological systems company based in Porto Empedocle, and Antonio Plescia, owner of a construction company in Villafrati.
During the raids, investigators carried out the temporary seizure of the mobile phones of all the individuals involved. The electronic devices were returned to their rightful owners only after forensic copying of the digital data, which will now be analysed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s technical consultants to seek evidence supporting the accusatory hypotheses. Although the details of the individual conduct remain protected by investigative secrecy, the investigators specify one key point: Miccichè is not alleged to have received any direct cash payments, but rather other alleged benefits.
Former mayor Miccichè’s response
In the face of the investigation’s developments, Agrigento’s former first citizen wished to reaffirm his innocence of any wrongdoing:
“I am calm because I know I have never committed any criminal offences in my life.”
— Franco Miccichè, former mayor of Agrigento
It will now be up to the magistracy’s cross-checked findings to shed full light on how the companies were selected and to clarify the regularity of the procedures in the allocation of municipal public funds.
