Nordio ready to report to Parliament on the Artem Uss case

After days of controversy, the government strikes a blow. The Minister of Justice Charles Nordio he communicated in a note that he will soon address the Chamber and, “having concluded all the necessary investigations, he hopes to be able to provide a report to Parliament already this week”. In fact, the Keeper of the Seals ended up at the center of a clash with the magistrates for not having sent the note from the US Department of Justice to the Milan Court of Appeal asking for the entrepreneur to be returned to prison Artem Usswho had been granted house arrest.

The alarms raised by the Uss electronic bracelet (and ignored)

Meanwhile, another important detail emerges. Ansa reveals that in the more than three months in which Artem Uss was under house arrest, before he escaped, the electronic bracelet alarm sounded dozens of times. And this, according to what was also verified by an expert in the Milanese investigation opened after the escape, again due to malfunctions of the device. In fact, the public prosecutor’s office investigating the escape of the Russian businessman asked a technician to analyze the alarm signals which in those three months and more (he went under house arrest on 2 December last) had started from the bracelet and had also forced the police to intervene very often. The technician clarified to the investigators that it would not have been attempts to escape in any of those cases, dozens and dozens, but of bracelet malfunctions, such as connection problems. Among other things, it seems that this kind of anomalies are also common when these control devices are used in home care.

As it turns out, the alarm has sounded for malfunctions much more than thirty times.
Then, that March 22nd it started at 13.52 and within about fifteen minutes the carabinieri, alerted by the operations center, intervened on the spot, but there was no longer a trace of the businessman. A rapid and timely intervention, as also indicated in a report by the Milanese Court of Appeal forwarded to the Ministry of Justice.

Fastweb’s reply: “No malfunction of the electronic bracelet”

Fastweb “specifies that there is no malfunction of the electronic bracelet assigned to Uss or of other devices in use”. The same company explains it in a note “in reference to the news disseminated by some press organs on the ongoing investigations relating to the escape of the Russian citizen Artem Uss”. “The alarms emitted by the bracelet would indicate, on the contrary – the note continues – the full functionality of the device in signaling to the police the removal of the bracelet from the home or possible tampering attempts”. Fastweb also underlines that “at the moment its technicians have not provided any information to the investigators regarding the functioning of the bracelet”.

The arrest and escape of Uss

The Russian entrepreneur, son of the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region and political exponent of the party of Putin United Russia, was detained on 17 October 2022 at Milan Malpensa airport in compliance with a US arrest warrant. Uss is accused of smuggling of military technology from the United States to Russia. On November 25, the Milan Court of Appeal in closed session established, despite the contrary opinion of the Pg, that Uss must go under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. But the American authorities write to the Italian Ministry of Justice asking for arrest in prison, once again signaling the danger of escape. Despite the request of the United States, on 2 December Uss was transferred to house arrest at a luxurious house he owned in the Borgo di Vione complex in Basiglio, in the Milanese hinterland. On December 6, the Ministry of Justice responded to the previous letter from the US explaining that the choice between prison and house arrest falls within the competence of the Milan Court of Appeal. On March 21, the Milan Court of Appeal gave the green light for the extradition of Uss to the United States, but the Russian entrepreneur escaped from house arrest on March 22 to return to Moscow.

But what is the reason for the clash between Nordio and the judges of the Milan Court of Appeal? According to the magistrates, the minister did not send the note from the US department asking for USS to be returned to prison. Nordio himself will now report to Parliament on the whole affair.