Ex-PM Andreotti Gets 24 Years for Murder Plot

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 18, 2002

Ex-PM Andreotti Gets 24 Years for Murder Plot

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An Italian court sentenced former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to 24 years in prison on Sunday on charges of complicity in the 1979 murder of a muckraking journalist, overturning a previous acquittal.

The shock ruling took Italy and its seven times prime minister by surprise. Andreotti, now 83 and a senator for life, was acquitted of the charges in a first trial three years ago, following accusations first levelled by a Mafia turncoat.

The court also convicted Gaetano Badalamenti, a Mafia boss already serving a prison term in the United States, for his alleged part in the murder conspiracy, the defendants' lawyers said on Sunday.

Andreotti -- a giant of Italian post-war politics, popularly dubbed "Mr. Italy" -- will remain at liberty while he appeals the latest court decision with Italy's highest appeals court.

"It's complete insanity," Andreotti's lawyer Franco Coppi told Reuters by telephone from the central city of Perugia, where judges had been sitting in deliberation over the weekend.

The ruling fueled controversy over the way prosecutors are able to pursue those already acquitted of crimes and prompted angry outbursts from across the political spectrum.

Andreotti has always denied the charges relating to the killing of Mino Pecorelli.

"I have always believed in justice and I continue to believe, even if this evening I find it difficult to accept such an absurdity," Andreotti, who had been waiting for the decision at his apartment in Rome, said in a statement.

Italy's current Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi slammed Sunday's ruling as a politically motivated decisions by judges who "have tried to change the course of democratic politics and to rewrite the history of Italy."

Berlusconi, who is himself on trial on charges of bribing judges, said: "I express my most sincere solidarity with Senator Andreotti, already acquitted and now victim of...a judiciary that has abandoned all scruples and denies a person's right to the due process of law."

The magistrates in the appeals court in Perugia shut themselves behind closed doors on Friday but were not able to reach a decision until Sunday night. The details of the decision will only be officially released at a later date.

Under Italian law, Andreotti could only be imprisoned if he were convicted by Italy's highest appeals court. Even then, due to his advanced age, he would be kept under house arrest.

Source: Agencies

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