Berlusconi denies links to Mafia attacks
Source: Agencies |
November 30, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ITALY'S Silvio Berlusconi yesterday defended his record in fighting the Mafia and vowed to hit back at the opposition press that reported he was being investigated in connection with a 1993 Mafia bombing campaign.
"If there's a person who by nature, sensitivity, mentality, background, culture and political effort is very far from the Mafia, it is me," the 73-year-old conservative prime minister and media mogul said.
"If there is a government that, more than any other, has made fighting the Mafia one of its clearest and coherent goals, it is my government," said Berlusconi.
New evidence from a Cosa Nostra mobster who turned state witness has prompted prosecutors to reopen a probe into the Sicilian Mafia's bomb attacks in 1993 on Rome, Milan and Florence.
Five people died in the Florence bomb, part of a campaign to scare the state into relaxing the harsh prison regime served by convicted mobsters. Mafiosi were jailed but a probe into links with politicians and business was dropped in 1998, then reopened this year when jailed mobster Gaspare Spatuzza turned informant.
Spatuzza has told magistrates, in evidence reported widely in the media and confirmed by court sources, that Berlusconi and Senator Marcello Dell'Utri were mentioned to him in connection with the attacks by a Mafia boss now doing life in jail.
Dell'Utri, a Berlusconi associate, has been convicted of association with the Mafia and sentenced to nine years in jail. An appeal is due to be held into his case on Friday, which could reveal more information on Berlusconi.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni boasted this month there was "never a happier period in the fight against the Mafia" than under this government, with "eight Mafia arrests a day and the list of 100 most wanted mafiosi reduced by half" as well as 10,000 Mafia properties worth US$7.9 billion confiscated in 17 months.
"If there's a person who by nature, sensitivity, mentality, background, culture and political effort is very far from the Mafia, it is me," the 73-year-old conservative prime minister and media mogul said.
"If there is a government that, more than any other, has made fighting the Mafia one of its clearest and coherent goals, it is my government," said Berlusconi.
New evidence from a Cosa Nostra mobster who turned state witness has prompted prosecutors to reopen a probe into the Sicilian Mafia's bomb attacks in 1993 on Rome, Milan and Florence.
Five people died in the Florence bomb, part of a campaign to scare the state into relaxing the harsh prison regime served by convicted mobsters. Mafiosi were jailed but a probe into links with politicians and business was dropped in 1998, then reopened this year when jailed mobster Gaspare Spatuzza turned informant.
Spatuzza has told magistrates, in evidence reported widely in the media and confirmed by court sources, that Berlusconi and Senator Marcello Dell'Utri were mentioned to him in connection with the attacks by a Mafia boss now doing life in jail.
Dell'Utri, a Berlusconi associate, has been convicted of association with the Mafia and sentenced to nine years in jail. An appeal is due to be held into his case on Friday, which could reveal more information on Berlusconi.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni boasted this month there was "never a happier period in the fight against the Mafia" than under this government, with "eight Mafia arrests a day and the list of 100 most wanted mafiosi reduced by half" as well as 10,000 Mafia properties worth US$7.9 billion confiscated in 17 months.
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