Meta called Lavitola

During an interview for “La Repubblica”, Meta says that he didn’t know Lavitola, but later in a press release he says that he knew him as the director of a newspaper.

La Repubblica has also published the recorded phone conversation in which Meta phones Lavitola and schedules an appointment and business dinner with him.

During an interview for the daily Italian newspaper “La Repubblica”, the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister, Ilir Meta, contradicts himself when talking about Valter Lavitola.

“I don’t remember being acquainted with this Mr. Lavitola. But maybe, now that I am recalling that visit in Italy”.

When the Italian journalist says that the published photo puts Frattini in a difficult situation, Meta answers:

“I don’t understand the difficult situation. The photo is official and if that man was present, someone must have authorized him staying with us”.

This was Meta’s reaction for the daily Italian newspaper, which contradicts the declaration of the Italian Foreign Minister, Franko Fratini. In a declaration published on the online page of the Socialist Movement for Integration, Meta says:

“Regarding the pretenses raised by some media for the engagement of a third party during my visit in Rome, on 21 October 2009, I guarantee that the presence of the director of an Italian newspaper, in the photo shown in the media and that was taken during my visit with the Italian homologue, is completely casual and has no connection with any institutional or official aspects of the visit. I have known the person in question as director of the ‘L’Avanti’ newspaper”.

While Meta says in the newspaper that he didn’t know Lavitola, the daily Italian newspaper continues investigating the case, which took other dimensions after Top Channel published the photo of the meeting between Frattini, Meta and Lavitola, made by the journalist Irida Cami after the press conference in Farnesina.

“La Repubblica” published this Thursday a phone record of the conversation between Ilir Meta and the former director of “Avanti”, Valter Lavitola, who didn’t know that his phone was under surveillance, with an authorization of the Pescara Prosecution.

The phone conversation, dated 20 October 2009, was made one day before the official meeting between the two Foreign Ministers, Frattini and Meta, and the next meeting with Lavitola, which shows that Meta knew Lavitola.

Another fact that raises more suspicions and contradictions is that the Albanian Foreign Minister has called Lavitola for saying him that he is in Rome.

While talking about a meeting that would be held after the official meeting, around 12:00, in which would be present one person named Ricardo, Lavitola’s friend and business partner. Then he cancels it and books a dinner on the day of the meeting, in which would be present Ilir Meta, Lavitola and his friend Ricardo.

After La Repubblica, the news was treated by other Italian media, such as Sky and LA 7 of Enrico Mentana, who quotes Top Channel for the discovery.

Top Channel