News • October 27 2003

Andreotti to fête the first Borg Olivier lecture

24-year jail sentence still hanging around his neck

Julian Manduca
Giulio Andreotti, 83, seven times Italian premier, has been invited to Malta by AZAD to deliver the first of a series of yearly lectures in honour of former Prime Minister Giorgio Borg Olivier on 3 November at the Auberge D’Aragon.
Andreotti, a senator for life, faces a 24 year jail sentence in his home country, but will probably never spend a day in prison.
Asked why AZAD, the socio-political organisation linked to the Nationalist Party, invited Andreotti, chairman Ranier Fsadni said: "The Fondazzjoni Giorgio Borg Olivier was created to provide a living monument to the former Prime Minister and we have invited Andreotti to speak about Borg Olivier and how Malta was perceived during his time in office. The lecture is expected to touch on foreign affairs, Constitutions and cultural identity, three subjects that were close to former Prime Minister’s heart."
Asked whether AZAD saw it opportune to invite Andreotti given the prison sentence that hangs over his head, Fsadni said: "Andreotti is still very well respected in Italy and indeed many prominent politicians have shed doubts on the court sentence. Italians are divided about Andreotti and his case continues as it is subject to appeal."
The Italy of Andreotti, Aldo Moro, Aminatore Fanfani, Bettino Craxi, in the seventies and eighties, is a far cry from the present era of Berlusconi, Romano Prodi and Massimo D’Alema. The so-called ‘anni di piombo’(years of lead) were characterised by killings and kidnappings of both the extreme right and left and, lurking in the shadows, the ruthless hand of the Mafia.
The bespectacled, and slightly hunchback Andreotti was in many ways the symbol of Christian Democratic party power, his physical presence and soft spoken manner in direct contrast to the power he
wielded.
Yet, throughout the years and even to this day, Andreotti remains an enigmatic figure, fuelling debate among political commentators about his convictions and prompting many to ask: "But, who, or what exactly is Andreotti?"
20 March 1979: unknown gunmen shoot and kill Carmine ‘Mino’ Pecorelli, the editor of Osservatore Politico, four shots to the head and back as he left his Rome office.
Pecorelli was allegedly about to publish extracts from the diaries of Aldo Moro, the former Italian premier kidnapped and killed by the Brigate Rosse.
Mafia turncoats were to claim, many years later that the killing was done "in Andreotti’s interests," and although he was acquitted of having been behind Pecorelli’s killing, an appeals court in Perugia overturned that decision and sentenced Andreotti to 24 years imprisonment on 18 November 2002.
The conviction relied heavily on the testimony of the late Tommaso Buscetta, the first big Mafia figure to breach the code of silence. Bruscetta and other Mafia ‘pentiti’ suggested that what Pecorelli was about to publish would have cut Andreotti’s career short.
In a separate trial Andreotti was not found guilty for Mafia association, but only on grounds of prescription. During that court case it was shown that Andreotti did indeed associate with Mafia bosses, even if the claim of the famous kiss he supposedly gave to Mafia boss of bosses, now imprisoned, Toto Riina, was rejected by the judges.
In a 1,500-page judgement Andreotti was cleared of all the charges that he associated with the Mafia. The judges explained that Andreotti had objectively underestimated the dangers posed by his proven contact with the Salvo cousins and Mafia boss, Stefano Bontade, before 1980.
"The court finds that Andreotti's real, enduring and friendly openness towards Mafiosi did not last beyond the spring of 1980," judges said.
Prosecutors had claimed the former PM had protected the mob and had links to Cosa Nostra bosses.
The judges decided that although Andreotti was close to Mafia bosses, prior to 1980, this was not a crime as, Italy only introduced the idea of Mafia association as a crime in 1982.
Andreotti took a public anti-Mafia stance from 1980 onwards, the written ruling said.
Debate continues in Italy about Pecorelli’s murder and in Andreotti’s trial the alleged gunman was acquitted of the crime.
It is not unusual for people when speaking loosely, or in a moment of anger to exclaim "te possino ammazza," (roughly translated as ‘if only they would kill you’), and perhaps even more commonly when speaking to third parties: "Non e possible farlo tacere?" (Would it not be possible to keep him quiet) or "Se qualcuno ce ne liberasse," (If only someone would liberate us from him).
But this cannot necessarily be construed to being an instruction to kill, and several famous similar instances preceded what has been alleged about Andreotti, including what Napoleon said to Fouche about the duke of d’Enghien. Did Fouche obey orders or go beyond them? And what about Mussolini and Matteotti?
The decision to sentence Andreotti to prison shocked and angered much of Italy’s political establishment including Silvio Berlusconi, who, it has been suggested, sought to use the judgement to discredit the judges for his own purposes. But not all Italy was taken aback.
Giulio Andreotti’s career, unlike that of many of his contemporaries, shows him to be a master juggler, ready to make alliances with all, and never allowing himself to be thought of as right wing, centre or left.
While other politicians were said to represent something, Andreotti represented many. He held many of the important posts within Italian government and held office with the liberals of Malagodi, the republicans of La Malfa, the Italian Social Democratic Party of Saragat, Nenni’s socialists, and Berlinguer’s communists. He was said to admire both Ghaddafi and Israel and preferred the US of Little Italy than that of Washington.
But Andreotti was an enigma because he also surrounded himself with businessmen involved in political intrigue and met some of the well-known in Italy’s underworld including Michele Sindona, who spent time in a US prison, Roberto Calvi, killed in London, and Mafia bosses Salvo Lima and the Salvo cousins, Nino and Ignazio.
Throughout his trial and even after being declared guilty in Perugia, Andreotti said he had faith in the judiciary, even if he was clearly astounded that day. Andreotti has appealed the decision and is not expected to spend time in prison because of his old age.
When asked about Andreotti, Bettino Craxi, then Italian premier, compared him to Beelzebub, often described as Satan’s second hand man, but said: "Who is Andreotti? I do not know."
The articles that Mino Pecorrelli’s was allegedly planning to publish never hit the newstands.
julian@maltamag.com