Former Berlusconi aid Dell'Utri 'asked mafia for film money'

Wanted over 10 million euros for Channel 5 films

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - Former Silvio Berlusconi aide Marcello Dell'Utri asked the Mafia for over 10 million euros to fund Berlusconi film projects, the supreme court said Tuesday in its explanation of its decision to uphold a seven-year prison sentence. According to the court, Dell'Utri's relationship with the Mafia was ongoing "even during the period when he worked for (former business associate Filippo Alberto) Rapisarda and his ongoing shows for the interests of businessman friend Berlusconi" and "even from the early 1980 encounter in Paris between defendant Dell'Utri and two Mafiosi in which Dell'Utri asked for 20 billion lire (around 10.4 million euros) for the purchase of Channel 5 films".

The supreme Court of Cassation called the 72-year-old former advertising businessman and Forza Italia creative head a "particular social risk" and said that "the refusal of the extenuating circumstances and the overall treatment of sanctions were justified due to the quality and nature of the offense committed" by dell'Utri. Dell'Utri was extradited from Lebanon to Italy in mid-June, after he fled a Mafia conviction. At the original trial in Palermo, the former Senator was found to have sealed "a pact of protection" with Cosa Nostra for Berlusconi at a meeting in May 1974.

The court said that meeting "formed the genesis of the relationship that linked the businessman (Berlusconi) and the Mafia with Dell'Utri's mediation". Berlusconi employed a Mafia boss and killer recommended by Dell'Utri, the late Vittorio Mangano, as an stable manager in the mid 1970s. It is alleged that this appointment was to protect his children from the kind of kidnappings that were then rampant in Italy. Dell'Utri's lawyers said the case against him was built on testimony from ex-Cosa Nostra informants that lacked credibility.