No to early release for Dell'Utri (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, Cctober 23 - 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.