Mafia supergrass gives evidence against Andreotti

A mafia supergrass drew a devastating picture of complicity between Italy's political establishment and Sicily's gangsters when he gave evidence yesterday against the former prime minister Giulio Andreotti.

Antonino Giuffre, number two in the Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in April last year, told a court inside a prison in Milan: "Relations between the Christian Democrats [CD] and Cosa Nostra were serene for at least a decade, there was absolute peace."

He was giving evidence against Andreotti, 83, the Christian Democrat politician who was seven times prime minister and served in 30 governments, and who is fighting an appeal by prosecutors against his acquittal in 1999 on charges of "Mafia association".

In a separate case, Andreotti was found guilty by an appeal court in November of ordering the murder of an investigative journalist, and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He is appealing against the verdict.

In the original Mafia case it was alleged that Andreotti exchanged a "kiss of honour" with Salvatore Riina, then head of the Sicilian Mafia and the most wanted criminal in Italian history.

Mr Giuffre, who testified behind a screen, has claimed that he was divinely inspired to collaborate with investigators after the Pope canonised the south Italian priest Padre Pio. Until his arrest he was number two to Bernardo Provenzano, the capo di capi nicknamed the Tractor, said to be because of his habit of mowing his enemies down, and who was described by one colleague as "having the brains of a chicken, but shoots like an angel". Last week, in a separate case in Palermo, Mr Giuffre alleged that the Mafia had also had close relations with the present Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, whose party, Forza Italia, holds all 61 Sicilian seats in Parliament.

Before the start of the hearing, Andreotti told reporters: "I am in the 10th year of this legal affair, and today is the most pointless and wretched."

Mr Giuffre explained how a senior mafioso linked to Andreotti in the original trial, Nino Salvo, "spoke with Senator Andreotti, asking him to intercede on behalf of the Mafia when it came under pressure from the forces of order and the magistracy." He also described the role of a former mayor of Palermo, Salvatore Lima, murdered in 1993, who served as a minister in Andreotti cabinets and is considered the key link between Andreotti and the Mafia. "The rapport between Lima and the cousins [mafiosi Antonino and Ignazio] Salvo was the principal link between Cosa Nostra and the political world," he said.

Cross-examined by lawyers for Andreotti, the gangster said, "Thanks to the good offices of Andreotti, Cosa Nostra enjoyed a period of impunity."

Asked why he had not spoken before yesterday's hearing of meetings between Andreotti and another alleged Mafia boss, Stefano Bontande, Giuffre shot back, "because today my testimony is being recorded." "Believe me," he added, "that's no crime. During six months of interrogation, from the start of my collaboration, I've been forced to work hard. I haven't had the time to say everything I know. Now I am remembering these things, but who knows what I will remember in the future?"

Pressed by Andreotti's lawyers to give details of how and when the senator-for-life broke the law, Mr Giuffre replied, "I do not recall specific facts. At the start of the Seventies Cosa Nostra had contact with important political personages. Everything was done in the full light of day. For more than a decade the rapport between Cosa Nostra and the political world was perfect. One of the reasons things went so well [for us] was this serene relationship that existed between DC, or rather a part of DC, and Cosa Nostra. For many years the peace was absolute."