Mob leaders testify for Berlusconi aide

TURIN, Italy, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Two Mafia bosses testified Friday for a longtime aide to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The witnesses refuted testimony by a mob hitman turned informant, Gasparo Spatuzza, who told a court in Turin a Mafia boss told him in the early 1990s Berlusconi was helping the mob, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The court is hearing the appeal of Marcello Dell'Utri, a senator and longtime business aide to Berlusconi. Spatuzza said he had been told Dell'Utri, born in Sicily, was a go-between for the mob and Berlusconi.

While Filippo Graviano and Cosimo Lo Nigro did not address Spatuzza's allegations about Berlusconi's mob ties directly, their denial of other parts of his testimony undercut his credibility as a witness.

Dell'Utri was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to nine years but is appealing. Berlusconi has suggested Spatuzza is still a mobster who wants to get rid of him because he has been more effective at fighting organized crime than other political leaders.