Milan anti-corruption magistrate Antonio di Pietro is either the victim of a diabolical conspiracy or a crook. Paddy Agnew charts the rise, fall and uncertain future of the man who was once Italy's most popular figure

By PADDY AGNEW

EARLIER this month, 300 policemen took part in 68 dawn raids up and down Italy from the Alps to Sicily. What had prompted such a massive deployment of police strength? Was it another major Mafia investigation? Had a new cartel of international drug traffickers been unmasked?

No and no. Investigates from the Guardia di Finanze (the tax and finance police) were looking for evidence of irregular financial dealings between Antonio di Pietro, Italy's best known ex-magistrate and, until last month, Minister for Public Works, and a certain Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia, a controversial Italo-Swiss financier.

Mr Battaglia is currently at the centre of a major corruption investigation involving public contracts for Italy's high speed railway system and a semi-state armaments company.

Four years ago, Antonio di Pietro became a household name in Italy and something of an international celebrity after his involvement in the Tangentopoli or "Clean Hands" corruption investigation, the Milan based inquiry which appeared to decapitate an entire political and business ruling class with its revelations of systematic corruption in public works contracts. Tangentopoli was meant to herald a new dawn it was to be the start of a "quiet revolution".

Even though he was the junior member of an experienced pool of magistrates, Mr di Pietro quickly became the "symbol" of the inquiry. He became not just the front man but, very quickly, the most popular man in Italy.

When the short lived government of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi tried to curb the aggressive investigative methods of the "Clean Hands" magistrates in June 1994, (Mr Berlusconi's Fininvest Group was under investigation), it was a ruddy faced Mr di Pietro who appeared on a television news bulletin in his shirt sleeves to read a dramatic statement denouncing the government aggression.

Mr di Pietro's immense popularity, past and present, is easy to understand. His is a story hard to resist. Born into a poor contadino (small farmer) family in the Molise region in southern Italy, Mr di Pietro was a self educated man who served as a policeman as well as living as a gastarbeiter in Germany, working in a factory by day and studying by night.

MILLIONS of Italians identified with Mr di Pietro. He seemed an answer to their prayers, a self made man who intended to clean up a corrupt ruling elite of politically protected untouchables. He was an outsider and a novelty whose investigative zeal was focused on wrong doing.

In the last two years, however, the di Pietro story has taken worrying turns which have left the Italian public confused and angry. Turning point number one came almost two years ago when, for reasons unknown, he resigned from the judiciary just as the "Clean Hands" team served judicial notice on the then prime minister, Mr Berlusconi, that he was under investigation.

It subsequently emerged that Mr di Pietro was also under investigation on charges of corruption and abuse of public office. These charges were thrown out by a Brescia court in April this year but they prompted a further trial, still continuing, in which Mr Berlusconi's brother, Paolo, and his family lawyer and ex-Minister for Defence, Mr Cesare Previti, are accused of trying to frame Mr di Pietro with trumped up charges.

Turning point number two in the di Pietro story came last month when he dramatically resigned as Minister for Public Works in the current centre left government, led by Mr Romano Prodi. He resigned after learning he was again under investigation for alleged malpractice during his time as magistrate with the "Clean Hands" team.

Transcripts of bugged telephone calls made by the Italo Swiss banker Mr Battaglia, have suggested that the financier "bought" his way out of Tangentopoli three years ago when he came under investigation by the "Clean Hands" team. Investigators, or at least certain investigators, suspect that Mr Battaglia may have bought his way out with payments, either to Mr di Pietro or to his friends.

At present, the matter rests there. While Italian public opinion might be very confused, friends and supporters of Mr di Pietro and political commentators have no difficulty in explaining the events of the past month.

"When you attack powerful people, sooner or later they take their revenge on you. Certainly, among those powerful people now attacking di Pietro, is Silvio Berlusconi," said Alleanza. Nazionale (ex-fascist party) MP, Mr Mirko Tremaglia, last weekend.

"There is a diabolic coherence to Silvio Berlusconi's current political commitments namely a vendetta against those magistrates who brought charges against him," wrote Mr Claudio Rinaldi, editor of news weekly L'Espresso.

Mr Berlusconi, leader of the opposition, is currently on trial in Milan within the ambit of the Tangentopoli investigation on corruption charges regarding bribes paid by companies within his Fininvest Group to tax inspectors in return for "speedy and favourable" audits.

Mr Berlusconi does not deny the charges but claims that his companies were victims of extortion by corrupt public officials.

Furthermore, he faces a further trial over an alleged illegal payment of £4 million made by his Fininvest Group to former Socialist prime minister, Mr Bettino Craxi, now in self imposed exile in Tunisia. These payments were allegedly made via a London based finance company called All Iberian.

It is obvious that Mr Berlusconi has good reason to resent the investigative zeal of the "Clean Hands" team. What are less obvious are the reasons why leading exponents of Democratic Left, (PDS), the major government party, should have recently distanced themselves from the work of investigating magistrates.

Senators Cesare Salvi and Giovanni Pellegrino are just two PDS figures who this autumn have criticised the alleged excesses of magistrates, with Senator Pellegrino even suggesting the judiciary wanted to upset "institutional equilibrium".

From its beginning in 1992, the Tangentopoli magistrates enjoyed always tacit, often outspoken, PDS support. There are those who feel that the current change in direction may be based on realpolitik considerations, namely the need to "meet Berlusconi halfway so as to get ahead both with government and with the much discussed all party institutional and constitutional reforms.

"I know for certain that there are many people pushing for an amnesty (for Tangentopoli crimes). To achieve this they are trying to delegitimise the pool so that they can say that they were investigated by unworthy people so that they can put a big stone over the whole thing," said Mr di Pietro's ex spokesman, Mr Elio Veltri, last week.

It is possible that Mr di Pietro is a very corrupt man, someone capable of deceiving not only judicial and government colleagues but also an entire nation. It is also possible, however, that he is a victim of a political vendetta and that the raids on his home and offices signal the end of Italy's so called "quiet revolution".

Powerful forces in Italian society have refused to accept the changes implicit in a "quiet revolution", preferring things to remain the good old corrupt way they always were. If those forces were to win the day, then not just Mr di Pietro but, more importantly, Italy and Italians will be the big losers.