Berlusconi "Pay Mafia 600 million lire"

ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, paid the mafia leader of 600 million lire per year as protection money, said a mob informant told the court in Rome, as reported by the Telegraph, Sunday (22/05/2011). Berlusconi (74 years), have long alleged that he was associated with the Mafia since he started his business career of more than 30 years ago.

Giovanni Brusca (54 years), known as Il Porco (The Pig), became an informant after his arrest in 1996, and he told the court that Mr Berlusconi had to pay "for everything smoothly." Brusca, who testified in the case of two Italian police officers accused of corruption, deliver it in a courtroom in Rome, where the trial against two police officers were deployed.

He said, "In the early 1980s, the mafia through Stefano Bontade (a leader of the Mafia in Palermo, Sicily) invested a lot of money through Berlusconi. I later heard through various people that Berlusconi paid Pizzo (protection money). That's about 600 million lire every year, all related to business activities in Sicily. "

Brusca added that the money from Berlusconi then paid the mafia leader, Toto Riina, after Bontade shot dead by a rival on his birthday 42, 1981. Brusca said, "He (Berlusconi) and then stopped paying, so we must set the attack so he started paying again."

Brusca did not elaborate on what he called "attacks", but it is expected a bomb attack in 1986 at a villa in Milan where Berlusconi used to live. The bomb caused minor damage.

Brusca, who said he had killed "between 100 and 200 people" to testify from behind screens and surrounded by police officers wearing black masks. He was convicted for murder with the 1992 car bomb against an anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone. He also ordered the kidnapping of the son of a mafia who were aged 11 years. He then killed the boy.

Berlusconi's alleged links with the Mafia began in the 1970's when he started a construction company in Milan. Close friend, Senator Sicily, Marcello Dell Utri, has been convicted of related to the mafia. Berlusconi always denied its association with the Mafia. He insisted that only his personal affairs with the Mafia was when it was revealed that mafia plans to kidnap his son, Piersilvio, in the 1970s.

During the 1970s, Berlusconi hired a manager named Vittorio Mangano stables at his home. Mangano one of Palermo Mafia figures who later was convicted of two cases of murder and died in prison eleven years ago. Berlusconi has always said he did not know if Mangano, while working with him, related to the mafia.