Bruno Contrada, the former number two of Italian secret service agency SISDE, should not have been convicted on charges of helping the Mafia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday. The court said the crime Contrada was convicted of, external participation in mafia association, was not defined sufficiently clearly at the time of the alleged offences, between 1979-1988. The court ordered the Italian State to pay Contrada 10,000 euros in damages. Contrada worked as Palermo police chief in the 1970s, as a top Criminalpol official, as a top official at the anti-Mafia commission and finally as number two at the SISDE.
In his trial, several former mobsters who had become State witnesses testified against him, saying that Contrada had provided Cosa Nostra with secret information on police and judicial investigations.
Contrada has always denied the accusations, saying they were motivated by a desire for revenge.
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