published an article by Le Temps November 1, 2010 (translation from Italy from abroad):
Dangerous Liaisons with the Knight "Octopus"
For years the name of the Prime Minister is quoted regularly by people linked to the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. Silvio Berlusconi rejects all these allegations.
again embroiled in a sex scandal, after disclosures that would have intervened improperly to make free "Ruby", a teenager arrested by police for theft, Silvio Berlusconi is considered a victim of a conspiracy. Politically weakened by several months, mainly because of the economic crisis and dissent within his own coalition is particularly concerned after the recent new investigations subpoena by prosecutors in Rome that the suspect and his son, avoidance tax.
But Silvio Berlusconi's attention is also paid to Sicily, where for years his name is regularly quoted by people linked to the Cosa Nostra. Last August, Massimo Ciancimino, son of former Democratic mayor of Palermo Vito Ciancimino, convicted of involvement in Mafia, and his mother, said on the eve of the 2001 legislative Knight would send money to Bernardo Provenzano, the boss of bosses, then a fugitive. The objective was to secure the electoral support of the clan?
few weeks earlier, Massimo Ciancimino, himself under investigation for collusion with the Octopus, had argued that the Sicilian bosses "in the 70s and 80s, had made large investments in Edilnord," Knight of the construction company. "Silvio Berlusconi has never had direct or indirect contact with Vito Ciancimino († 2002), has strongly responded to his lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini.
But already last year of a turncoat mafia, Gaspare Spatuzza, had brought up the President of Council, supported his entry into politics in 1994 was backed by Octopus. During his deposition, in particular, said that Joseph Gravano, godfather of the Brancaccio neighborhood of Palermo, had confided to him in Rome in January of that year, Berlusconi had become a partner of Cosa Nostra "Graviano me the name of Berlusconi and told me that thanks to him and to our neighbor [Marcello Dell'Utri, Ed] we had put the country in his hands. "
Gaspare Spatuzza but did not provide many details and Joseph Gravano, now in jail, did not confirm the facts. "They are unfounded and defamatory allegations," replied the politicians close to the leader of the right reminiscent of the criminal record of his accusers. "Before joining the Justice Gaspare Spatuzza was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a priest's anti-mafia".
The fact remains that these statements have reopened questions about the Sicilian shadows that surrounded the rise in business and then in the policy of the Italian number one. The first episode disturbing back to the '70s, when Silvio Berlusconi launches in the construction industry with the financial support of the bank where he works Rasini his father. In 1984, when a reporter asked the former shady banker Michele Sindona "what are the banks used by the mafia," the latter say, "in Milan a small bank located in Piazza dei Mercanti, the headquarters of the bank Rasin. The origin of the funds
Berlusconi empire, hidden behind several shell companies, as revealed in the book by Elio Veltri and Marco Travaglio "The Smell of Money" has never been fully elucidated. But the decisive factor is the entry stage of Marcello Dell'Utri. This Palermo skilled and educated former university fellow of Silvio Berlusconi, became his right arm in the early '70s. Then you will be responsible for Publitalia, the powerful commercial monopoly of Fininvest. Marcello is
Dell'Utri that, in 1973, introduces the capomandamento Palermo Vittorio Mangano in the villa of Silvio Berlusconi. Arcore officially Mangano is the groom. We will stay for about two years. "As part of Cosa Nostra has been one of the few people able to manage relationships with industry", will explain later the judge Paolo Borsellino, who was assassinated in 1992. Vittorio Mangano will be sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2000.
As for Marcello Dell'Utri, who also was convicted in June by the Court of Appeal of Palermo to seven years in prison for "involvement in the mafia." At first instance judges had spoken a "concrete contribution, voluntary, conscious" to "consolidation and strengthening of Cosa Nostra, in particular through its relationship with the Fininvest group." Thanks to his agent Silvio Berlusconi had personally met the big boss from Palermo in 1974 Stefano Bontade. "In the end, Berlusconi said he was at our disposal," said the repentant Francesco Di Carlo, present at the meeting. At the time the businessman was afraid - for himself and his family - possible kidnapping by the mafia.
Among the payment of the racket to protect its television channels in Sicily or political agreements to help Marcello Dell'Utri Forza Italy in 1993 to launch the career of Silvio Berlusconi is thus marked by suspicion and mystery. Some even suspect a liability behind the attacks of the Mafia in 1993 in Rome, Milan and Florence, which would serve to prepare for his entry into politics, as if the adventure of the candidate Silvio Berlusconi was nothing but a criminal history and a political phenomenon.
The head of government totally rejects any suspicion, bearing in mind each time that his government is the one who performed the largest number of arrests of men of honor. Yet stubbornly continues to defend his former right hand man Marcello Dell'Utri, he said the victim of politicized judges and public statements the godfather Vittorio Mangano - who has never called to account for any reduction of sentence - was "a hero".
( Original article by Eric Jozsef )
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