Berlusconi aide convicted of Mafia ties
A close political ally of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of ties with the Sicilian Mafia today and sentenced to nine years in prison, news reports said.
Marcello Dell’Utri was an executive in Berlusconi’s business empire and is now a senator in the premier’s Forza Italia party.
The court in Palermo also banned Dell’Utri from holding public office, the ANSA news agency said.
Prosecutors had accused him of acting as a link between the mob and the Milan business world.
The decision came a day after a court in Milan cleared Berlusconi of corruption charges at the close of a trial lasting more than four years.
The billionaire premier had been accused of bribing judges in the 1980s before he went into politics.
Prosecutors had sought an eight-year prison term.
