Andreotti cleared of murder charges

Italy's highest court yesterday cleared seven-times prime minister Giulio Andreotti of charges that he had ordered the Mafia murder of a journalist in 1979.

The Court of Cassation overturned a verdict by a lower court last November which had convicted the 84-year-old life senator and sentenced him to 24 years in prison, lawyers said.

The ruling was widely expected after the state prosecutor agreed with the defence and said Mr Andreotti should be declared definitively innocent and that no re-trial was necessary.

Mr Andreotti's lawyers took the case to the Court of Cassation after an appeals court in the central city of Perugia had overturned an earlier acquittal and found him guilty of ordering the 1979 killing of scandal-sheet journalist Mino Pecorelli.

The Perugia verdict sent a shockwave through Italy, with both government and opposition politicians denouncing the sentence as a travesty of justice.

The prosecution at the first two trials said Mr Andreotti ordered the killing because Mr Pecorelli was preparing an expose that could have hurt the politician.

A panel of three judges ruled yesterday that there was no evidence to back up accusations made during the two earlier trials that Mr Andreotti wanted Mr Pecorelli dead and that he had asked the Mafia to kill him.