The landmark trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti began in Rome, with serious allegations of his alleged connections to organized crime.
This high-profile legal proceeding would become a significant moment in Italy's ongoing struggle against Mafia influence in political circles.
The dominant political figure of post-World War II Italy, Giulio Andreotti, went on trial , accused of having links with the Mafia and, through it, to an array of crimes including extortion, misuse of power, obstruction of justice and murder.
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The long-awaited trial began amid tight security in a heavily fortified courtroom filled with more than 200 journalists. The defendant sat stoically at the front-row defence table, flanked by his three lawyers.
Over a period of seven hours, the three-judge panel hearing the case listened to a series of procedural arguments before adjourning until Oct. 6 to weigh a defence motion to move the trial away from the Sicilian capital to Rome.
During the procedural wrangling, Andreotti’s attorney Franco Coppi asked the court the question to which all of Italy and much of Europe would like the answer: “Is it possible that a man who has for 50 years represented Italy would, at the same time, swear fidelity to the Cosa Nostra?”
The courtroom phase of the case against Andreotti, already dubbed Italy’s “trial of the century,” follows more than three years of formal investigation by state prosecutors.
The result of that investigation, prosecutors claim, is a case that includes more than 400 witnesses and will prove that Andreotti became intimately linked to the Mafia, met with the mob’s most powerful figures and was involved in crimes--including ordering the murder of an Italian investigative journalist in 1979.
The slain journalist, Mino Pecorelli, is said to have had evidence linking Andreotti to a bribery scandal and illegal contributions to the politician’s Christian Democratic Party.
Andreotti, 76, denies the charges against him, dismissing them alternatively as a Mafia attempt to destroy him because of his governments’ tough actions against organized crime or as an elaborate plot by unnamed enemies.
“In 50 years, I’ve never done anything that smells of the Mafia,” he told reporters during a break in Tuesday’s proceedings.