Italian Justice Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri faced calls to resign yesterday over accusations she used her influence to get the ailing daughter of a former insurance magnate out of prison.

The loss of an influential minister could further destabilise Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s fragile right-left coalition, where tensions are already running high ahead of a vote to expel centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi from parliament later this month over his conviction for tax fraud.

The opposition 5-Star Movement said on Friday it would present a no-confidence motion against Cancellieri and the Democratic Party (PD), the largest bloc supporting the government, called on her to address Parliament on the matter.

I made a humanitarian intervention

Cancellieri stood firm against the resignation demands.

“I made a humanitarian intervention based on the possibility that an inmate could have died,” Cancellieri told RAI state TV yesterday after admitting earlier last week she urged prison authorities to ascertain the health of Giulia Ligresti, insurance mogul Salvatore Ligesti’s oldest daughter.

Cancellieri will testify before the two houses of Parliament on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

The scandal erupted on Thursday when La Repubblica newspaper printed the transcript of a tapped phone call between the Justice Minister and the wife of Ligresti on the day he was arrested along with his two daughters and ex-company managers.

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