Marcello Dell'Utri, a former
right-hand man of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, is not entitled
to early release because of the gravity of the mafia-related
crimes he was convicted of, the Cassation Court said Monday,
upholding a February 14 Bologna jail-review tribunal ruling.
External collaboration in mafia association is a crime excluded
from those where early release can be granted the top court
said.
Dell'Utri is serving seven years for colluding with the mafia
in Palermo, and on top of that got four years last November for
a VAT scam.
The 76-year-old former close aide to three-time ex-premier
and media mogul Berlusconi and co-founder of Berlusconi's Forza
Italia party was convicted in 2014 of acting as an ambassador
between the centre-right group and the Cosa Nostra Mafia in his
native Sicily.
He was extradited from Beirut to serve his sentence.
Like Berlusconi, Dell'Utri claims he is the victim of a
witch hunt by leftist magistrates.
His original conviction came when a Palermo court found he
had sealed "a pact of protection" with Cosa Nostra boss Stefano
Bontade on Berlusconi's behalf at a meeting in May 1974 - a
meeting that the court said "formed the genesis of the
relationship that linked the businessman (Berlusconi) and the
Mafia with Dell'Utri's mediation".
Berlusconi, who first met Dell'Utri playing soccer during
student days in Milan, employed a Mafia boss and killer
allegedly recommended by Dell'Utri, the late Vittorio Mangano,
as an alleged stable manager in the mid 1970s - but in reality,
to allegedly protect his children from kidnappings that were
then rampant in Italy.
Dell'Utri is also the former head of the media magnate's
advertising arm and is credited with creating the media mogul's
Forza Italia party in 1993, six months before it swept to
victory in general elections.
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