The trial will begin next March 16 at the Court of Brescia and will see as defendants Milan Deputy Prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale and Milan Public Prosecutor Sergio Spadaro, who according to the Brescia prosecutor's office were expected to bring into the trial then under way in Milan for international bribery in Nigeria some elements favorable to the defendants, which emerged from a different investigation conducted by their colleague Paolo Storari.

"There is no precedent in Italy of such a fact: of a trial of two magistrates who considered not to produce acts transmitted by another prosecutor, justifying their trial choice with an official note dated March 5, 2021, sent and acknowledged by their chief prosecutor, who accepted it without objection," Caterina Malavenda, counsel for the two magistrates, said at the end of the preliminary hearing.

"I am certain that the hearing will prove their total correctness," she concluded.

According to the Brescia prosecutor's office, which requested and obtained the trial, the elements in question, if introduced in the trial, would have benefited Eni and the other defendants, certifying the unreliability of former Eni manager Vincenzo Armanna - a co-defendant in the "Nigerian" proceedings and at the same time an accuser of the group's top management - and the alleged falsity of his statements.

Instead, the defense of the two Milanese magistrates during the investigation argued that the material reported by their colleague at the time had no probative and verified value, in addition to the fact that no expert report had been made yet, which was concluded only after the end of the trial.

Moreover, part of the items were the result of seizures made as part of the other investigation of a defendant in the current trial, Armanna precisely, and the law does not allow the usability of the result of these activities against a person on trial.

At the same time, the defense had added that the law (Article 53 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) establishes the full autonomy of the prosecutor in the courtroom.

In November 2021, 15 anti-corruption magistrates from 12 different nations around the world had formally urged the OECD to defend De Pasquale and Spadaro from what they called an "attack" on anti-corruption and initiate an assessment of Italy's commitment to the OECD International Anti-Corruption Convention.

In April 2022, an OECD delegation then launched a mission to Italy, with hearings of magistrates, lawyers and journalists in Milan and Rome.

(Emilio Parodi, editing Francesca Piscioneri)