The Mafia trial of Italy’s former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Prosecutor Gian Carlo Caselli explains how leading Italian politician Giulio Andreotti was put on trial in Sicily in September 1995, accused of collusion with the Mafia. Andreotti had been prime minister seven times and journalists dubbed it the trial of the century. Bob Howard has been hearing from Gian Carlo Caselli about compelling evidence that Andreotti had met the Mafia kingpin Stefano Bontade and even knew in advance of the planned assassination of the president of the Sicilian regional government, Piersanti Matarella.

Photo: Giulio Andreotti in 1983. Credit: Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:35.4	Sounds. You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:46.6	I'm Bob Howard.
0:48.0	Today I'm taking you back to the 1990s and the trial of one of Italy's most prominent politicians which revealed to the world the extent to which the
0:56.7	Italian political class was entangled with organized crime and one group in
1:01.6	particular the Sicilian mafia. I'm bringing you the story of
1:05.5	Dr. Jan Carlo Caselli who was head of a team of anti-Mafia prosecutors in
1:09.6	Palermo on the island of Sicily in September 1995 during the trial of Italy's former
1:16.0	Prime Minister Giulio Andriotti.
1:18.0	From 1993 to 1999 I was the chief prosecutor of Palermo and therefore I dealt with
1:26.8	many trials on the anti-maphyside.
1:30.3	It's hard to exaggerate how big a figure Andreotti was in Italian politics in the 1970s and
1:37.0	1980s as a leading member of the Christian Democratic Party. In a 50 year career, when he wasn't Prime Minister, he was Minister of Defence,
1:46.2	Foreign Affairs, Finance, Treasury, or the Interior. So when he was put on trial for alleged collusion
1:52.0	with the Sicilian mafia, known on the island by the name
1:55.2	Kosa Nostra, it was a huge story with some journalist calling it the Italian trial of the century.
2:00.9	The response is important. trial of the century. His importance is in the numbers.
	...

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