8 convicted in case alleging govt reps colluded with Mafia

Source: Associated Press


Colleen Barry, Associated Press
Updated 2:51 pm, Friday, April 20, 2018

MILAN (AP) — A court in Italy convicted a mob boss, three police investigators and a close associate of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi in a case showing collusion between the Sicilian Mafia and state institutions after a deadly wave of mafia bombings during the early 1990s.

Prosecutor Nino Di Matteo said the long-awaited verdicts demonstrated with "certainty that while in Italy bombs were exploding, in 1992 and 1993, some representatives of the government were negotiating with the Cosa Nostra and transmitting threats of the Cosa Nostra to the government."

During the course of the 5-year trial, two top defendants among the eight charged died while serving multiple life sentences: Mafia bosses Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore "Toto" Riina. More than 200 people testified during more than 200 hearings.

Mafia boss Leoluca Bagarella received the toughest sentence, 28 years, while former Forza Italia Senator Marcello Dell'Utri, already jailed for acting as a go-between between the Mafia and Berlusconi, was sentenced to 12 years.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/8-convicted-in-long-running-trial-over-Mafia-govt-12851358.php