Berlusconi linked to mafia bombing

A jailed mafia hitman linked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to the Cosa Nostra on Friday,telling a court that a godfather convicted for a 1993 bombing campaign had boasted of his links to the media mogul....

A jailed mafia hitman linked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to the Cosa Nostra on Friday,telling a court that a godfather convicted for a 1993 bombing campaign had boasted of his links to the media mogul.

Berlusconi says biased courts are making false charges to bring down the 19-month-old government his third since 1994 and attack his Mediaset business empire.

Stripped of immunity from prosecution,the Prime Minister faced legal difficulties on two fronts on Friday,with an ally appealing against conviction on mafia charges and an unrelated corruption case where he is accused of bribing a British lawyer.

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Mafia pentito,or mobster-turned-witness,Gaspare Spatuzza told a court in Turin that a mafia clan leader later jailed for the attacks had named Berlusconi,who had not entered politics at the time,in connection with the bombings.

He recounted a meeting with clan boss Giuseppe Graviano later given multiple life sentences along with his brother for the bombings in Rome,Milan and Florence in a cafe on Romes Via Veneto early 1994,after the deadly bombing campaign.

Graviano told me we had obtained everything,thanks to the seriousness of the people whod helped with our affair… he mentioned two names,he called Berlusconi the man from Channel 5, said Spatuzza,referring to a Mediaset television channel.