Italy: Berlusconi minister sent to trial for mafia association
last update: July 03, 12:19
Palermo, 3 July (AKI) - Judges have ordered a minister in the last Berlusconi government, Saverio Romano, to stand trial for mafia association. Romano, a member of the Italian parliament denies wrongdoing and claims he requested the trial himself.
"I and my defence counsel asked for a fast-track trial before the judge ordered me to stand trial," the former agriculture minister, told Adnkronos.
He claims the charges against him are "politically motivated". A sentence could be delivered in the case as soon as by 17 July.
Romano was accused of being "at the beck and call" of the Sicilian mafia in evidence given by several mafia informants during the trial of jailed Sicily governor Salvatore Cuffaro. A former senator for the centrist Catholic UDC party, Cuffaro was in 2010 sentenced to 7 years in prison for abetting the mafia.
Besides testimonies by mafia informants, phone intercepts also form part of the evidence for the prosecution, although Romano's defence claims these are "inadmissible".
Romano was appointed agriculture minister in March 2011 in a cabinet reshuffle. His appointment was widely seen a reward for his decision to quit the opposition UDC party, in which he was elected to parliament, and to support then-premier Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition in a crucial no-confidence vote in December 2010.
Berlusconi resigned as prime minister in November 2011 as the country's financial crisis spiralled out of control, raising the real possibility that Italy could miss payments on its 1.9 trillion euros of debt. He was succeeded by an unelected technocrat, Mario Monti.
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