ITALY: Former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti returned to court yesterday to face charges of Mafia membership less than two weeks after another court sentenced him to 24 years in prison on a murder charge.
Andreotti was acquitted at the first trial in 1999 of being the Mafia's main backer in the corridors of power during his long political career. The prosecution appealed that ruling.
Andreotti (83) has denied all the charges against him, saying they are part of a "diabolical" Mafia plot to punish him for crackdowns on organised crime by governments he headed.
At the start of the new appeals trial, the prosecution asked the court to hear testimony from Antonino Giuffre, who, after his arrest in April, turned state's evidence that led to the arrest of 29 Mafia members in September.
Giuffre was the right-hand man of Bernardo Provenzano, believed to be the boss running the Mafia now. Provenzano has been on the run for nearly 40 years. It is not known if Giuffre has made any accusations against Andreotti.
The first Palermo trial was based on testimony from 38 Mafia turncoats. Two said they saw Andreotti with Mafiosi and others said they knew about it from hearsay.
Andreotti, a life senator who served as prime minister seven times, declined to answer reporters' questions as he entered the Palermo courtroom.
But in an interview with Reuters last week, Andreotti ridiculed the testimony of former Mafiosi.
"I told the magistrates in Palermo that if someone with a face as well known as mine really went in broad daylight. . .to the house of someone who was under house arrest to meet someone else who was on the top of the most wanted list you should not convict me but put me in a lunatic asylum," Andreotti said.
After being cleared of charges in two Mafia trials in 1999, including the Palermo one, Andreotti's legal woes took a dramatic turn for the worse earlier this month.
At an appeals trial in Perugia, Andreotti was convicted of charges that he ordered the 1979 killing of scandal-sheet journalist Mino Pecorelli, who was said to be preparing an exposé that could have hurt Andreotti.
Andreotti was sentenced to 24 years in jail in that trial. His lawyers are appealing to Italy's highest court.
The shock sentence led to widespread calls for reforms of the justice system. No new evidence was presented at the Perugia appeals trial, where the court based its decision mostly on a rereading of documents from the first trial.
Both trials have led to fierce debate on the credibility of the evidence of turncoat Mafiosi. - (Reuters)