FOR THE second time in eight months, Italian post war history went on trial yesterday when seven times prime minister Mr Giulio Andreotti stepped into a courtroom in the Umbrian town of Perugia to answer murder charges.
Mr Andreotti (77), the man whose 45 year career embodied the Christian Democrat domination of post war Italian politics, is charged along with Mafia godfathers of having ordered the 1979 murder of journalist Mino Pecorelli.
Last autumn, Mr Andreotti also went on trial in Palermo, Sicily, accused of persistent Mafia collusion over a 20 year period.
In this separate Perugia trial, the prosecution will argue Mr Andreotti used his friends and influence within the Mafia to have the journalist murdered, thus preventing the publication of specific articles, including one concerning Mr Andreotti's role in the Red Brigade kidnapping and subsequent killing of former prime minister, Aldo Moro, in 1978.
Pecorelli is alleged to have obtained a copy of an infamous prison journal written by Aldo Moro during his period of Red Brigade detention in which he allegedly levelled serious accusations at Mr Andreotti, including that of Mafia collusion.
Mr Andreotti was prime minister at the time of the Moro kidnap.
Looking his usual relaxed self as he sat in the front row of the courtroom taking notes, Mr Andreotti attended yesterday's hearing, without, however, making any statement to reporters.
He has always claimed his total innocence, arguing that both the Pecorelli murder accusation and the Mafia charges in Sicily have been masterminded by the Mafia as a reprisal for stern anti Mafia measures he adopted while prime minister.
. An 11 year old boy and his gang of eight forced regular payments of cash from terrified schoolmates in a junior Mafia style racket, Italian newspapers said yesterday. The "mini boss" organised the gang at his school in Lamazia Terme, in the southern region of Calabria, after watching a film about a teen aged Mafioso.