COPS HELD FOR 'GOVERNOR SEX VIDEO'

COPS HELD FOR 'GOVERNOR SEX VIDEO'

(ANSA) - Rome, October 23 - Four Carabinieri policemen were arrested in Rome Friday for allegedly blackmailing Lazio Governor Piero Marazzo with a purported video of an encounter with a transsexual.

Governor Marazzo, who vowed not to step down, said the case was a ''bogus attempt to smear me'' ahead of regional elections in March.

''I will continue my work with great determination and a clear conscience until the last day of my term,'' he said.

''I have a family I hold dearer than anything and want to preserve with all my strength''.

The governor called the affair ''surreal'' and ''of unprecedented gravity'' and noted that he had already been the victim of spying during his campaign for governor in 2005.

He said he would leave all other statements on the case to his lawyers.

A lawyer said the governor would sue anyone divulging details of the case for breach of privacy and rules preventing the publication of criminal proceedings before they reach court.

Earlier, investigators said two of the cops broke into an apartment in July, found Marazzo with a transsexual, and took the contents of the official's wallet.

The investigators said it was unclear whether the Carabinieri had filmed the encounter or whether, as the policemen claimed, they had seized the video from a second transsexual allegedly present.

The four said they had unsuccessfully touted the video to the Italian press before deciding to blackmail Marazzo.

Marazzo reportedly paid the four some 50,000 euros ($75,000) and gave them cheques, not yet cashed, for 30,000 euros ($45,000) more.

Carabinieri General Vittorio Tomasone described the four as ''rotten apples who were discovered thanks to an internal investigation''.

Politicians from across the political spectrum voiced solidarity with Marazzo.

His centre-left Democratic Left (PD) party indicated that the case was not a threat to his standing for re-election in March.

PD officials said the case was ''murky'' and ''especially worrying because it involves sections of the state apparatus''.

But some government MPs accused the centre left of double standards in defending Marrazzo before the facts of the case had been established, in contrast to their alleged haste to condemn Premier Silvio Berlusconi's private life.

Marazzo, 51, a former TV journalist for state broadcasting corporation RAI, won the Lazio regional elections in 2005.