'Absurd and disconcerting'

The official Vatican newspaper did not mince its words about the Andreotti case. Like many others, it was shocked when the former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti was sentenced to a 24-year prison term for having arranged the murder of a journalist.

L'Osservatore Romano not only expressed "complete solidarity" with Andreotti but said that a Sunday appeals court decision, overturning the earlier acquittal of the former prime minister, was "absurd and disconcerting".

The Vatican was not alone. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and leaders of both houses of Parliament called Andreotti to offer solidarity, according to reports. Berlusconi condemned the verdict as an effort by politicised judges to "rewrite Italian history" and said he hoped a higher court would overturn it.

Andreotti, who is a daily Mass-goer, dominated Italian post-war politics until his Christian Democrat Party collapsed in the 1990s. Prosecutors argued that Andreotti ordered the 1979 Mafia slaying of journalist Mino Pecorelli because he feared Pecorelli had unearthed compromising information. Andreotti has denied the charges, saying he was targeted by political enemies and by Mafia dons upset with his crackdowns on organised crime.

The case against Andreotti was built on the testimony of "pentiti" - Mafia figures who have begun co-operating with prosecutors in exchange for more lenient treatment of their own cases. In September 1999, a lower court found Andreotti innocent of the charges, accepting his explanation that the witnesses were seeking revenge after previous clashes between Andreotti and organised crime.

L'Osservatore Romano, in its November 19 edition, observes that many Italian figures, who have been prosecuted on the basis of evidence supplied by "pentiti" have subsequently been found innocent. The Vatican newspaper said that the appeals court decision should prompt "urgent revision of the utopian norms regarding the use of 'pentiti'." The paper called for efforts to "guarantee the rule of law and safeguard the dignity, innocence and freedom of people who are often unjustly accused".

Opening a bishops' conference meeting on Monday, Cardinal Camillo Ruini said it was "just and necessary to confirm publicly that my personal esteem (for Andreotti) is intact in this sorrowful circumstance".

Cardinal Camillo Ruini said that the court judgment against Andreotti was "very heavy". He added: "I still believe that he is innocent, and it is my duty, under these sad circumstances, to confirm in public my personal esteem for him."