Italy last night was bracing itself for political controversy following the death yesterday in Tunisia of the disgraced former prime minister, Mr Bettino Craxi. The 65-year-old Socialist, who died from a heart attack, had suffered from chronic diabetes.
Mr Craxi had been living at his summer home in Hammamet, Tunisia, since leaving Italy in May 1994 to escape trial on bribery and corruption charges within the ambit of the "Tangentopoli" investigations into illicit party financing in the early 1990s.
Following his flight from Italy, he received two convictions for his role in scandals related to the state-run petro-chemical giant ENI and to the Milan underground railway.
Head of the Italian Socialist party at a time when it claimed 12 per cent of the national vote, Mr Craxi served as prime minister in two successive governments between 1983 and 1987. In the 1980s he was not only the most influential power-broker of his day but also came to symbolise a decade of economic boom.
Since leaving Italy, Mr Craxi had always rejected the court rulings against him, arguing that he was the victim of a political witch hunt.
His daughter, Stefania, in an apparent reference both to the investigating magistrature and to Mr Craxi's political opponents in the current centre-left government, said last night: "My father did not die. They killed him."