Andreotti arrives this morning

Giulio Andreotti, life senator and seven times prime minister of Italy, arrives in Malta this morning, just five days after he was finally acquitted of charges of having ordered the murder of a journalist in 1979.

Sig. Andreotti is expected at the airport at 11.20 a.m. to deliver an address at the Giorgio Borg Olivier Memorial at the Auberge d'Aragon, Valletta, today at 7 p.m.

The Academy for the Development of a Democratic Environment, AZAD, will be marking the 23rd anniversary of the death of former Prime Minister George Borg Olivier in collaboration with the Fondazzjoni Borg Olivier.

As from this year, AZAD is inviting prominent personalities to give a lecture, in addition to the commemoration of the former prime minister.

Sig. Andreotti, who will be staying at San Anton Palace until tomorrow, had met on a number of occasions with Dr Borg Olivier during his tenure as prime minister.

An AZAD spokesman said that Sig. Andreotti's visit had been planned for months, and that last week's judgment was purely coincidental.

With reason regarded as a friend to the Nationalist Party, Sig. Andreotti had also met with Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami in February last year, and was last in Malta in 1991 to open the AZAD premises.

On Thursday, Italy's highest court cleared him of charges that he had ordered the Mafia murder of a journalist, Mino Pecorelli 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.

President Guido de Marco and Dr Fenech Adami are expected to be present at this evening's lecture.