Documents cast new light on brutal murder of Paolo Pasolini

Police documents published by an Italian weekly, Oggi, yesterday cast a new light on the brutal 1975 murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini, one of the country's foremost 20th century intellectuals.

"The murderers of Pier Paolo Pasolini were at least four," said Oggi, contesting the accepted version of events, according to which the communist writer, director and poet was killed by Giuseppe Pelosi, a 17-year-old who said he had acted alone to defend himself from being raped by Mr Pasolini.

Franco and Giuseppe Borsellino, two then-teenage brothers told an undercover policeman in 1976 that they had participated to the murder, along with another man, according to police documents published by Oggi.

The two brothers have since both died of AIDS.

Mr Pasolini, whose works include movies like The Gospel According to St Matthew and poem collections like The Best of Youth, was beaten and run over with his own car on November 2, 1975.

Mr Pelosi, who spent nine years in jail for the killing, recently retracted his earlier version saying he and Mr Pasolini were surprised by five men, among whom were the Borsellino brothers, who beat the writer to death, shouting "dirty Communist," and homophobic insults.

Through his films and writings Mr Pasolini frequently celebrated homosexuality, but it was his political writings and his journalism, particularly his column for the leading daily Corriere della Sera, that is believed to have been most feared by his enemies on the right.