Campania's recently elected centre-left governor Vincenzo De Luca can take up his duties, a Naples court ruled on Thursday, upholding his petition against a suspension from office under an anti-graft law.
De Luca will now be able to take part in his first regional assembly meeting since being elected in the first round of voting in regional elections on 31 May.
De Luca, a former mayor of the southern city of Salerno, who is credited with regenerating the city, is appealing an abuse of office conviction by a lower court in January for his handling of a local incinerator project while mayor.
The ban stemming from the abuse of office conviction has been lifted pending the court's ruling on his appeal. But the head of the national anti-corruption authority, said after Thursday's ruling that Italy's 2012 anti-graft law needed revamping.
"Less than three years after the law came into force, it is encountering problems and doubts over its application," Raffaele Cantone said in a report to parliament.
The law, which bans from office politicians convicted of certain crimes, was central to preventing corruption, Cantone stated.
De Luca, from the ruling centre-left Democratic Party, was among 17 politicians deemed until for office by the Italian parliament's anti-mafia commission in late May.
He was the only Democratic Party member on the 'unelectable' list although it also included three politicians from lists that backed is campaign for Campania governor.
All the politicians on the list were from the Campania and neighbouring Puglia region and most were from centre-right parties.
De Luca announced he would sue the commission chair Rosy Bindi for defamation and has also challenged her to a debate, his staffers said on 29 May.
