Former Italian PrimeMinister Mr Giulio Andreotti was "friendly" with the Mafia but toolong ago for him to be prosecuted, Italian judges wrote today in explaining a verdict handed down earlier this year.
A Sicilian appeals court cleared Mr Andreotti of charges ofcomplicity with the Mafia in May, saying the prosecution couldnot prove its case against the seven-times prime minister.
In their justification for that verdict, released today,the judges wrote that Mr Andreotti (84) could not be prosecuted forlinks to Cosa Nostra before 1982 because under a statute oflimitations, too much time had passed since the alleged event.
"The court finds that Andreotti's real, enduring andfriendly openness towards mafiosi did not last beyond the springof 1980," the judges wrote in the 1,500-page document.
They rejected testimony from one Mafia turncoat who said hehad seen Mr Andreotti kiss Mafia "boss of bosses" Toto Riina, nowin jail.
But they said they accepted testimony from other turncoatsthat Mr Andreotti had met another prominent Mafia boss, StefanoBontade, in the spring of 1980. Bontade was murdered in 1981.
Mr Andreotti is Italy's best-known post-war politician. He lastheld office as prime minister in 1992 and is now a life senator.