Transsexual linked to political scandal 'murdered'

A Brazilian transsexual caught up in a political scandal that prompted the resignation of Italian governor Piero Marrazzo was found burnt to death in a Rome apartment on Friday. Magistrates are treating the case as murder.

AFP - A transsexual implicated in a scandal surrounding a prominent Italian politician was found burned to death on Friday in a Rome apartment, media reports said.
   
Firefighters called to the blaze found the body of the transsexual who went by the name of Brenda, the reports said.
   
The ANSA news agency reported that prosecutors have opened a murder investigation in the case.
   
Piero Marrazzo, governor of Rome's Lazio region, resigned after four police officers were arrested on accusations of blackmailing him with a video allegedly showing him with a transsexual named Natalie.
   
Brenda testified to investigators in the affair early this month that she had been with Marrazzo on two occasions.
   
About 10 days ago she was reportedly intoxicated when she got into a fight with some hooligans who beat her and stole her cell phone, according to ANSA.
   
Other transsexuals who turned up at the site of the fire said Brenda had shown suicidal tendencies in recent weeks, media reports said.
   
Reports emerged Friday that her death was the second in the affair following that of a drug dealer, Gianguarino Cafasso, who was said to have been linked to the transsexuals' milieu and informed on one of the four arrested police officers.
   
The cause of Cafasso's death is also under investigation, ANSA said.
   
The scandal came as the centre-left Democratic Party was preparing to elect a new leader in a nationwide primary.
   
Marrazzo, a 51-year-old ex-journalist and television star who had governed Lazio since 2005, originally told the media he was the victim of a political plot aimed at toppling him.
   
The four police officers are suspected of trying to extort up to 80,000 euros (120,000 dollars) from him with the video, which Marrazzo initially said was fake, ruling out his resignation.
   
News media said cocaine was found in Marrazzo's apartment.

Date created : 2009-11-21