Eight jailed in Italy over secret talks between state officials and mafia

A court in Italy has convicted eight men, including mob bosses, police investigators and a close associate of Silvio Berlusconi, over a secret attempt to negotiate with the Sicilian mafia in order to end a bloody bombing campaign in the 1990s

After the verdict, members of the public cheered the prosecutors. Eight men were handed jail sentences ranging from eight to 28 years, including three former heads of the security police department – Mario Mori, Giuseppe De Donno and Antonio Subranni – and the co-founder of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, Marcello Dell’Utri.

The five-year case has thrown light on one of the murkiest chapter’s in Italy’s recent history: secret talks held between who were seeking to overturn harsh anti-mafia laws.

As part of their campaign to put pressure on the state, the mafia – at the time led by the Corleone family – unleashed a string of bombs and assassinations which killed 23 people including anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

“As judges were being blown up, some people in the state helped the cosa nostra,” said prosecutor Nino Di Matteo after the sentence. “This is is an historic ruling.”

Di Matteo said the verdict proved that Dell’Utri was the go-between linking the mafia and the new Berlusconi government in May 1994. “The relationship didn’t stop with Berlusconi, the entrepreneur, but arrived at Berlusconi, the politician,” he said.

According to the prosecutors, the Italian officials communicated with mafia “godfather” Totò Riina, who died in prison last November, in the attempt to stop the wave of mafia murders and bombings.

During the contacts with state officials, mafia bosses offered to stop the bombings in return for reduced sentences for jailed mobsters and a review of all convictions.

Dell’Utri was sentenced to 12 years in prison for undermining the state, as were two retired paramilitary police generals and an ex-colonel.

Dell’Utri is already serving a seven-year sentence for tax fraud, false accounting and acts of conspiracy with the Sicilian mafia.

A convicted killer for the Corleone mafia family, Leoluca Bagarella, was handed 28 years and Antonio Cina, another high-ranking Corleone mobster, got 12 years. Both are already in prison.

The Corleone bosses of that period, Salvatore “Toto” Riina and Bernardo “the Tractor” Provenzano, are dead.

In a statement, Berlusconi denied ever having anything to do with the mafia and said his governments fought against organized crime.

The report includes material from AP