Italian former regional governor agrees plea bargain for corruption

MILAN (Reuters) - The former centre-right governor of Italy's northern Liguria region, Giovanni Toti, has agreed a plea bargain deal with prosecutors to end a corruption case against him, his lawyer said on Friday.

The prosecutors were seeking a sentence of just over two years in prison for Toti, an ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Under the deal he will instead do 1,500 hours of community service and pay 84,000 euros ($93,164).

Toti was arrested in May, accused of receiving over 70,000 euros from a businessman as part of an investigation related to the granting of port terminal contracts, building permits and a beach concession. He denied all the allegations against him.

He resigned in July after nine years in charge of Liguria, on Italy's northwestern coast, and was due to stand trial in November.

Toti said he felt both bitter and relieved after agreeing the plea bargain deal.

"Like all transactions, it arouses contrasting feelings: on the one hand the bitterness of not pursuing our arguments to the full to demonstrate my innocence, on the other, the relief of seeing many of them accepted," he said in a statement.

Under Italian law, plea bargaining is not an admission of guilt. The deal is subject to approval by a pre-trial judge, but such agreements are normally accepted.

Aldo Spinelli, a port businessman well known in Italy as the former owner of soccer clubs Genoa and Livorno, and Paolo Emilio Signorini, who after his arrest lost his job as head of Italian utility IREN, were also among the defendants.

Signorini agreed a plea bargain for a prison sentence of three years and five months, two judicial sources said.

His lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

The trial for the other defendants is set for November 5.

($1 = 0.9016 euros)

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Gavin Jones and Christina Fincher)