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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Mafia witness in Berlusconi claim | Mafia witness in Berlusconi claim |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A Mafia informant testifying at a trial in the Italian city of Turin has linked Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to a bombing campaign by the Sicilian Mafia. | A Mafia informant testifying at a trial in the Italian city of Turin has linked Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to a bombing campaign by the Sicilian Mafia. |
| Gaspare Spatuzza is giving evidence in an appeal by the co-founder of Mr Berlusconi's party, Marcello Dell'Utri. | |
| He said that a clan boss convicted of the bombings had named Mr Berlusconi in connection with the 1993 attacks. | He said that a clan boss convicted of the bombings had named Mr Berlusconi in connection with the 1993 attacks. |
| A spokesman for Mr Berlusconi, who denies the allegations, suggested the Mafia was trying to discredit the PM. | |
| Mr Spatuzza, a protected witness, gave evidence from behind a screen in the courtroom, surrounded by several bodyguards. | |
| 'Revenge' | |
| The informant recounted an alleged meeting in 1994 with a Mafia leader, Giuseppe Graviano, who was later convicted along with his brother for the bombings in Rome, Milan and Florence. | |
| "Two names were mentioned, one of them was Berlusconi's," he said. | |
| "I asked if he was the one from Channel Five and he told me 'yes'." | |
| "Graviano told me that thanks to the seriousness of these people we had the country in our hands," he added. | |
| The spokesman for Mr Berlusconi, who is not formally linked to the case of his political associate, said the Mafia was attempting to get its revenge on Mr Berlusconi's administration for its fight against organised crime. | |
| "It is completely logical that the Mafia would use its members to make statements against the prime minister of a government that has acted in a determined and concrete way against organised crime," Paolo Bonaiuti said, quoted by to Reuters news agency. | |
| Marcello Dell'Utri is appealing against a conviction for Mafia association and a nine-year prison sentence. |