Andreotti guilty of ordering journalist´s murder
01 November 2002
On 17 November 2002 an assizes court in Perugia (Umbria) found seven-times prime minister Giulio Andreotti and Mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti guilty on appeal of ordering the murder of journalist Carmine "Mino" Pecorelli in Rome on 20 March 1979, sentencing them to 24 years and overturning an acquittal in the same city in April 1999. The other defendants, former politician and magistrate Claudio Vitalone, mafioso Giuseppe Caló, Michelangelo La Barbera, member of the Roman banda della Magliana, and Massimo Carminati, were acquitted. Andreotti was first linked to the investigation by allegations from now deceased mafia pentito (turncoat) Tommaso Buscetta in 1993. Buscetta revealed that fellow boss Badalamenti told him that he had Pecorelli killed as a favour to the senator-for-life and former Christian Democrat (DC). Badalamenti is currently in a New Jersey prison serving a 45-year sentence for his involvement in the "Pizza Connection" case in the USA, and has also received a life sentence in Italy for killing anti-mafia activist Peppino Imposimato.
Sergio Matteini Chiari, prosecuting, claimed that the murder was linked to the journalist's intention to publish part of the memoriale Moro, a document that disappeared after it was found by the carabinieri paramilitary police headed by general Dalla Chiesa. It was believed to include details of the trial in a "people's court" to which Aldo Moro was subjected by the Red Brigades after he was kidnapped on 16 March 1978. The 55-day kidnapping of Moro, who was president of the DC at the time, ended with his death. Part of the memoriale Moro has never been recovered, and prosecutors argued that Pecorelli had obtained it (from Dalla Chiesa himself) and was going to publish it in his magazine Osservatore Politico (OP). Moro grew increasingly bitter towards Andreotti and his DC colleagues as his fate unfolded, amid threats that "my blood will fall on all of you". Prosecutors believe that the document contained damaging information about Andreotti, the then prime minister who refused to negotiate, or exchange prisoners, with the Red Brigades to secure Moro's release. Andreotti also knew that Pecorelli was in possession of some damaging information concerning an illegal payments scandal. His assistant Franco Evangelisti admitted paying Pecorelli 50 billion Lire to prevent him from publishing the story only days before the journalist was murdered.
Pecorelli was also a member of the P2 masonic lodge, an illegal organisation that was considered a "state within the state" with membership including politicians, members of the military and secret services as well as businessmen. It has been alleged that the shadowy organisation was involved in coup attempts, terrorism and countless scandals, including the murder in London of banker Roberto Calvi. Licio Gelli, "Venerable Master" of P2, was acquitted of involvement in the murder of Pecorelli at a previous trial in 1991.
The guilty verdict was vociferously criticised by politicians from several parties as well as Vatican officials. Most notably, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi took it as further evidence of the excessive politicisation of certain sectors of the judiciary who were persecuting conservative politicians, and of the need for reform of the judicial system. Nonetheless, Andreotti is considered the custodian of many of Italy’s post-war secrets due to his almost uninterrupted proximity to power from the late 1940s to 1992, and his excellent relationship with officials in the USA and in the Vatican. On 26 February 1991, in response to a parliamentary question, Andreotti sent a document to the parliamentary investigation commission on massacres and terrorism presided over by Giovanni Pellegrino, admitting and detailing the nature of "Gladio", a CIA-financed clandestine organisation for unconventional warfare to resist the possiblity of a Communist takeover of Italy.
Andreotti is currently accused of involvement in the mafia in a