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italy  |
Sept 12 -Sept 19, 2010 |
Andreotti says Ambrosoli 'was asking for it'
Statesman sparks storm with remark on Sindona's liquidator
Italian elder statesman Giulio Andreotti unleashed a storm of criticism Thursday when he said a widely regarded hero murdered while liquidating a Mafia-linked financier's assets in the 1970s had brought it on himself. In an interview for a TV programme on the affair, Andreotti, 91, said "I don't want to fill in for the police but certainly (Giorgio Ambrosoli) was someone who 'was asking for it".
Ambrosoli, 46, was murdered outside his house in July 1979 by a Mafia hitman commissioned by Michele Sindona, a Sicilian banker whose empire was crumbling amid speculation the Mafia was calling in favours and debts.
Previously Sindona had been a high-flying financier whose activities on the foreign-exchange market prompted Andreotti to dub him "the saviour of the lira".
Sindona died of a poisoned cup of coffee in jail in 1986, after being convicted on several counts of fraudulent bankruptcy and Ambrosoli's murder.
Ambrosoli had continued digging into Sindona's affairs despite several death threats.
Posthumously awarded a medal for civic heroism, he has had piazzas named after him and was commemorated in a 1995 biopic entitled A Middle-Class Hero, directed by Michele Placido.
Most of the criticism of Andreotti's surprising remark used this description of Ambrosoli.
Emanuele Fiano, law-and-order pointman for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said Andreotti's "very serious statements take us back to terrible years". "For us, Ambrosoli remains the middle-class hero who didn't bow down to anyone.
"We could do with his example in today's Italy. The words of life Senator Andreotti are the worst reminder of those Italian powers, which Andreotti was a part of, that left Ambrosoli alone in a just and tragic battle".
Former PD chief and ex-culture minister Walter Veltroni called Andreotti's remarks "incredible".
The spokesman for ex-graftbuster Antonio Di Pietro's Italy of Values (IdV) party, Leoluca Orlando, called Ambrosoli "a true middle-class hero" and added: "With just one phrase, (Andreotti) smeared the memory of brave Giorgio Ambrosoli, murdered because of his honesty, the same honesty of all the honest citizens and servants of the State who lost their lives because they refused to compromise". For the ruling centre-right coalition, Interior Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano called Andreotti's take on the incident "surprising".Page 1/...Page 2
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