WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- So far, it's been a so-so week for Silvio Berlusconi. First, the conservative Italian prime minister escaped being sentenced on his 1991 charge of bribing a judge because the court decided that the statue of limitations had expired on the case.
Berlusconi was alleged to have tried to buy a favorable verdict in a legal dispute with a rival company involving a takeover bid. The case has been a thorn in Berlusconi's side throughout his four-year tenure, and the fact that time has run out for sentencing is not the same as being found not guilty. Some legal experts were even saying that it also does not rule out further action, but it is closure of sorts for Berlusconi.
Then on Tuesday the government was further embarrassed when a court in Palermo sentenced the prime minister's close political ally and business partner to nine years jail for having dealings with the Mafia. Marcello dell'Utri was accused of laundering organized crime money through the Milan-based advertising agency Publitalia, a subsidiary of Berlusconi's multi-million dollar holding company Fininvest. The star prosecution witness was a Mafia bigwig turned informer or "supergrass" -- to use the Irish term -- named Antonio Giuffre, who gave evidence on a closed circuit video link from an undisclosed location where he is being held by Italian investigators.
Dell'Utri, who denies any Mafia dealings, will not serve his sentence pending an appeal. But Giuffre's testimony not only claimed that dell'Utri acted as go-between for the Mafia and leading Italian business organizations, but that in the mid-1990s Berlusconi himself had met with leading figures from the organized crime group Cosa Nostra.
Giuffre is alleged to have been a close associate of Bernardo Provenzano, a Cosa Nostra boss who has been on the run for more than three decades. Provenzano is now in his 70s, but the police only have a picture of him at age 24. Giuffre told the court that Berlusconi met more than once with top organized crime bosses when he was forming his political party Forza Italia (Go Italy). They were ostensibly visiting Berlusconi's home in Milan to see an associate employed by the property and television billionaire to run his horse stables, but in reality were also establishing contact with the then future prime minister.
Dell'Utri had played a key role in Berlusconi's meteoric rise in Italian politics. He supervised the creation of the Forza Italia movement (it was not initially called a political party), and many observers consider him the leading strategist in Berlusconi's 1994 election victory. Yet Berlusconi distanced himself from dell'Utri by refusing to testify at his associate's trial.
Berlusconi's's alleged contacts with the Mafia are hardly likely to come up when the Italian prime minister visits President George Bush in Washington Wednesday. After Britain, Italy has proved to be Bush's strongest ally in Iraq. An Italian military force of around 1,500 is concentrated in the relatively trouble-free Nassiriya area. Echoing Bush's statements, Berlusconi has said that the Italy will remain there until democracy is restored to Iraq.
At home, reports of possible contacts between Berlusconi and the Cosa Nostra reflect the resilience of organized crime in Italy despite Mafia-busting successes -- particularly since the 1980s -- and its skill at ensnaring unwary politicians. As a result, Ottavio del Turco, one-time head of the Anti-Mafia Commission once said, "Italy's history can be stained by collusion with organized crime."
In October, the Court of Cassation, the country's highest judicial body, finally cleared Giulio Andreotti, the legendary Christian Democrat politician, of charges of collusion with the Sicilian Mafia. Andreotti -- seven times prime minister, a member of the Italian parliament continuously since 1948, and now a senator-for-life -- had been battling the charges since 1992. The prosecution maintained that in return for delivering the Sicilian vote to the Christian Democrats since the early 1970s, Andreotti was alleged to have used his power to keep organized crime figures out of jail -- and that he even knew about at least two Mafia murders.
Andreotti has consistently denied the charges, but Mafia informers, including Giuffre, had alleged that Andreotti not merely had dealings with Italian organized crime, but was quite active within the power structure. He was even said to have exchanged the kiss of honor with convicted super-godfather Salvatore Riina. The October verdict ends his long legal battle, even though it was a somewhat bitter victory. The court ruled him not guilty because of insufficient evidence: Andreotti had been hoping for verdict that would connote innocence.
To knowledgeable observers, the fault lies in the reality that in Sicily political power and the shadowy world of dons and godfathers are so organically linked that contact with the Mafia at some level was, and continues to be, inevitable.
In 2003, according to published reports, Italian police investigated 1,124 crimes in Italy, and arrested 172 fugitives, including three Sicilian Mafiosi on the 30 most wanted list. In addition, the state confiscated more than 2,000 properties linked to organized crime. But still the battle continues.
