by Alessandra Cardone
ROME, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Italian court confirmed on Thursday that some 49 million euros (57 million U.S. dollars) have to be seized from the accounts of the right-wing governing League party.
The verdict was issued by a review panel at the Genoa Courthouse, which confirmed a previous sentence given by judges in Milan and upheld by Italy's highest court.
The sum referred to undue electoral reimbursements the party received in the past, which were embezzled by former representatives of the League between 2008 and 2010.
"This story belongs to the past, and I am relaxed," the current leader of the League and interior minister Matteo Salvini told a press conference in Rome after the verdict.
"If they want to take everything away from us, let them do it...Italians stand by us," Salvini added.
Former League Party chief Umberto Bossi, his son Renzo, ex-treasurer Francesco Belsito, and three external auditors were found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to various prison terms in a trial in July 2017.
At the time, the court also ordered the League to pay back 48.9 million euros of the overall state financing it had received over the years.
The party appealed, but after the sentence was partially overturned, the Court of Cassation confirmed the seizure order in July this year, recommending judicial police search for the requested funds "wherever they might be". That included bank accounts, deposits, and other assets of the League.
So far, Italian authorities have seized some three million euros, and the party is believed to have about five million euros in its accounts, according to Ansa news agency.
Now, with the verdict upheld by the court of review, the prosecution office is expected to request the immediate seizure of all available funds.
League leader Salvini has long maintained that the various rulings against his party were politically motivated. He also stated the League does not have so much money in its accounts.
League deputy chief Giancarlo Giorgetti last week told local media that if the seizure was definitively confirmed, the party "would disappear".
