Mr Giulio Andreotti, seven times prime minister of Italy, was last night acquitted of the charge of ordering the 1979 killing of a journalist, Mr Mino Pecorelli. A court in the Umbrian town of Perugia acquitted Mr Andreotti (80) - now a life senator - and four other men of the charges, bringing to an end a highly controversial trial that first opened in April 1996.
Although Senator Andreotti was not in court to hear the verdict, his senior defence lawyer, Mr Franco Coppi, told reporters that Mr Andreotti had been "obviously very satisfied" with the court's decision.
"This verdict speaks for itself," Mr Coppi said. "It upholds the total innocence both of Senator Andreotti and of the other defendants and I'd say that this total acquittal provides the most obvious demonstration the prosecution's case was totally misfounded . . ."
Mr Andreotti, a former Italian trade minister, Mr Claudio Vitalone, and two convicted Mafia bosses, Gaetano Badalamenti and Pippo Calo, had all been charged with having conspired to have Mr Pecorelli killed, while a Mafia hit man, Michelangelo La Barbera, had been charged with carrying out the shooting in 1979.
Mr Pecorelli was shot outside the Rome offices of Osservatore Politico, a scurrilous and shadowy publication edited by him and which appeared to thrive on gossip allegedly supplied by senior figures in the Italian secret service.
The prosecution's case relied heavily on the evidence of a former Mafia godfather turned state's witness, Tommasso Buscetta, who had claimed that Badalamenti had told him that Mr Andreotti had wanted to get rid of Mr Pecorelli.
According to Buscetta, Mr Andreotti had wanted Mr Pecorelli killed because he was about to publish articles about the financing of the Christian Democrat party as well as secrets related to the 1978 Red Brigade kidnapping and subsequent murder of the former prime minister, Aldo Moro.
The Pecorelli trial in Perugia is just one of two highly controversial trials which feature Mr Andreotti in the role of defendant since he is currently being tried in Palermo, Sicily in the so-called "trial of the century" on charges of Mafia collusion and of having afforded systematic political protection to the Mafia over a 20-year period between the late 1960s and 1980s.
Mr Andreotti has always dismissed the charges brought in both trials, claiming that they have been fabricated within the context of a Mafia-orchestrated plot aimed at discrediting him and intended to gain revenge for the crackdowns on organised crime implemented by governments he headed.
Commentators were last night speculating that yesterday's verdict in Perugia seems likely to have an impact on the trial in Palermo, which is due to deliver its verdict next month.
Much of the evidence and many of the witnesses heard in the Perugia case have also featured in the Palermo trial, while it seems highly significant that the court in Perugia chose to ignore the evidence of Buscetta, a Mafia turncoat whose evidence has in the past proved vital in securing convictions against Mafia godfathers, most notably during the celebrated "Maxi-Processo" in 1987.
Asked about the possible fallout of yesterday's verdict, Mr Andreotti's defence lawyer, Mr Coppi, last night commented: "Every judge is sovereign with regard to his own court's proceedings . . . However, I would point out that the state prosecutors in Palermo have mentioned Pecorelli, indeed at times they gave the impression that you can take it for granted that Senator Andreotti had Pecorelli killed . . . I would like to think that the Palermo judges will pause to reflect on this judgment here today."