Mystery surrounds kidnap of Berlusconi's accountant

It is emerged Italian police have opened an investigation into the kidnap last month of Silvio Berlusconi’s accountant, one of his closest allies. Giuseppe Spinelli and his wife were allegedly abducted from their Milan home by six armed intruders on October 17 and held for 24 hours. The group is said to have demanded a 35-million euro ransom. In exchange they also reportedly offered to hand over documents they claimed would overturn a guilty verdict against one of Berlusconi’s publishing companies, Mondadori. The group are said to have left empty handed the next morning but detectives are puzzled as to why Berlusconi did not report the incident immediately. His bodyguards picked up Spinelli and his wife and held them at a so-called safe location for hours before alerting police. Milan police spokesman Alessandro Giuliano said: “As a most urgent step we’re trying to understand what happened in the very first 12 hours, during the kidnapping, what followed will be the next step of the inquiry.” In July last year, Italy’s appeal court ordered Berlusconi’s Fininvest group to pay some 560 million euros in damages over its takeover of Mondadori.