960406

Italian ex-spy chief gets 10 years for Mafia links

PALERMO,(Sicily): A former top Italian police officer and spy chief was found guilty of having links to the Mafia on Friday and was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

A court in the Sicilian capital Palermo took eight hours to reach its verdict on Bruno Contrada, 66, whom prosecutors had accused of being the Mafia's highest-placed spy and of covering the tracks of notorious bosses during their years on the run.

Contrada made no comment when the verdict was read out.

"Now we want all the ministers and undersecretaries who allowed Contrada's conduct to be condemned too," Pietro Milio, lawyer for the former third-ranking official in the civil intelligence service SISDE, said after the ruling.

Contrada had also held a string of senior anti-Mafia jobs, including deputy police commissioner of Palermo, and had led probes into some of the mob's bloodiest murders in a 35-year career.

He was arrested in December 1992 on the evidence of seven Mafia turncoats including top informers Tommaso Buscetta and Francesco Marino Mannoia.

Prosecutor Antonio Ingroia told reporters the sentence proved "the law is the same for everyone". But he said the ruling had no bearing on the trial of seven-times prime minister Giulio Andreotti on charges of being the Mafia's protector in Rome.

Andreotti, whose trial is due to resume in the Sicilian capital on April 10, was also charged after evidence from turncoats.

"This verdict has nothing to do with the Andreotti trial...the situations are completely different," he said.-Reuter