ROME-- Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi was hanging onto her job by a slender thread Friday after she was questioned for eight hours by magistrates about a dubious life insurance policy filed using tax payers money, judicial sources said.

  The 30,000-euro life insurance policy for which she is the beneficiary, taken out by Salvatore Romeo, is the newest revelation in a series of corruption accusations. On the subject, all she had to say was “I have clarified everything and I am moving on.” The former head of the secretariat added “Now I do not speak, I will defend myself.”

 “Now I do not speak, I will defend myself.” This is what Salvatore Romeo told ANSA when questioned on the subject. The former head of the political secretariat of Virginia Raggi made out the insurance policy in January 2016 when she was running as a candidate for the Cinque Stelle (M5S) party. Raggi has been accused of abuse of office and has also been questioned by the police.

 Raggi claimed “I do not know anything, I am shocked.” She said after midnight flowing eight hours of questioning. She is keen to move on from the potential scandal as “here in Rome there is a lot of work to be done.” These words display a certain sense of security. This, although the policy is now being scrutinised by judges despite not receiving any complaints.

 Romeo has a history of these of these questionable dealings and resigned in December after the arrest of Raffaele Marra for corruption four years ago,. According to Il Fatto Quotidiano, the chief secretary has invested over 100,000 euros on a dozen life insurance policies with beneficiaries ranging from relatives to M5S activists. The prosecution is not only seeking to understand whether Raggi knew of the policies but also the rationale behind their creation in the first place.

 The president of the Capitoline assembly spoke out for the first time on the matter: “I must think of the protection of the Cinque Stelle Party as a whole and will continue to do my job as I did yesterday, tomorrow.” He then reiterated the party line in saying “I do not know the details, you should ask those involved.” It seems like this investigation is yet to run its full course but the irony is that it is happening in a party that ran on a mandate to oppose corruption.