Former head of Italian government Silvio Berlusconi paid the Sicilian Mafia “significant amounts of money” for protection in the ’70s, says Court of Cassation in the arguments to a decision published Wednesday, the Italian press writes. In this 146-page document, “Il Cavaliere” is described as “a victim who acted out of necessity” and “paid large sums of money on security for him and his family”. These quotes are contained in the arguments of a decision of the Court of Cassation which decided in March to waive the seven-year prison sentence of Berlusconi’s close friend, Senator Marcello Dell’Utri, for complicity with the Mafia, made in 2010 by a Palermo court. Court stated back then that there was missing evidence against the senator and demanded a new trial against him. However, the highest Italian tribunal appreciates in the motivation that the Sicilian senator “has acted as mediator” between Berlusconi and the organized crime. Dell’Utri was “author of a protection and cooperation agreement between Berlusconi and the mafia”, according to the Court.
Senator Dell’Utri, a native of Palermo, was convicted at first instance, in December 2004, to nine years in prison for his questionable joining with some “capos” of Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra. In June 2010, Palermo Court of Appeal upheld the conviction for “aiding mafia from outside”, but reduced the sentence from nine to seven years. During this lawsuit, in December 2009, a former member of the mafia, Gaspare Spatuzza, who collaborated with the police, accused the senator that “he was the agent who prepared” the emergence of forces favorable to Cosa Nostra on the political scene. But his testimony was later declared questionable.
Berlusconi resigned in November as head of the Italian Council of Ministers, weakened by a series of sex scandals and a financial crisis that threatened to paralyze Italy. He is being tried now in three cases: Mediaset (for tax fraud and false financial statements), Ruby (paid for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power) and Unipol (for breach of confidentiality of investigation). Il Cavaliere has been having problems with justice in his country for about 20 years. He was convicted on three occasions in the first instance, for corruption, falsification of financial statements and illegal political party financing. But each time he was later acquitted or free of charge due to prescription.
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