Convicted mafia criminal, ex-aide
to former premier Silvio Berlusconi and bibliophile Marcello
Dell'Utri was acquitted Tuesday on charges of illegally
appropriating 13 valuable books from the noted Girolamini
Library in Naples.
Dell'Utri, 79, who is serving the last of seven years in jail
for mafia association, was fully acquitted with the formula "the
crime was not committed".
The former Senator in Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia
(FI) party, who has been found guilty of acting as an
intermediary between Cosa Nostra bosses and three-time former
premier and media magnate Berlusconi - a crime for which the FI
chief has never been accused - had been accused of complicity in
embezzlement in relation to the missing volumes.
Dell'Utri, credited with being he brains behind the creation of
FI in the run-up to Berlusconi's first election win in 1994, was
facing a prosecution request for seven more years in jail.
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