Press release

Andreotti decision
Communion and Liberation:
What a great victory!

The acquittal of Senator Giulio Andreotti in the Palermo trial is a great victory "because the act was not committed"! A victory for Senator Andreotti and his family, who have finally been freed of a nightmare that has gone on for years. And also for Italy, which has not been governed for fifty years by a member of the Mafia. And again, for the Court, which, albeit very slowly, has achieved justice. And finally for us, who have always expressed our certainty concerning Senator Andreotti's innocence.
The CL press office
October 23, 1999

For my part, it is necessary to dispel any misunderstanding about the nature of this trial, in which I was the defendant, and it cannot be seen either as a historical revision of the Christian Democracy Party and of a half-century of Italian political life, or as an overall examination of the value of individual persons who have given "state's evidence" or the entire category of collaborators with the investigators. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my lawyers who, not giving in to or letting themselves be discouraged by the sea of documents submitted to the court-and this may have been part of the prosecutors' technique-precisely clarified every point, demonstrating the total inconsistency of the accusations. I personally would have nothing to add if a recently pronounced insinuation on the part of the prosecuting attorney did not force me to furnish to the Court a further, unequivocal rebuttal, just as we have done every time we found ourselves faced with a concrete and verifiable piece of evidence.

Marvel and indignation
But allow me to make a premise.
In the Senate session of May 13, 1993, when approval was given, also with my vote, to proceed with the investigation and trial, I said, and I quote, "My marvel and indignation at the fabrications produced by the state's evidence concerning me contained in the documents of the investigating magistrates, including strange references to crimes whose purpose would have been to cover up mysterious aspects of the tragic death of Aldo Moro, could legitimately lead me to make evaluations concerning certain individuals. But I cannot, nor do I want to, forget that the collaboration of people who turn state's evidence is an instrument that in itself is useful for breaking through the wall of silence erected by the Mafia, and thus I do not want to add my voice here to those who make generic censures and comments, which only serve to further the aims of the Mafia. However, it will be necessary to see what interests lie behind the creation of false trails, revenge, or whatever else, when people act so dishonestly."
I have not changed my opinion on this, and if in the important debate now underway in Parliament, with the purpose of putting this sensitive topic in proper order and avoiding distortions, someone proposed to suppress this instrument, I would rise to oppose this, in a way fully coherent with the legislative initiatives against the Mafia that bear my signature and that only a dialectical distortion like that of certain prosecutors can suggest were passed in the face of my indifference or even my ignorance of them. (…)
I will say, incidentally, that something has hurt me in this trial more deeply than the behavior of certain individuals who turned state's evidence, who are very strongly tempted not only by the promise of impunity for the many crimes they have committed but also for the prospects of financial retribution which in one case mentioned by Mr. Scarpinato right here can reach figures worthy of the national lottery. In a certain sense they are protecting their own interests.
Let me recall a session of this trial (February 28, 1998) when I was present, to show the thing that struck me so deeply.
In his cross-examination, Mr. Coppi asked Baldassarre Di Maggio [one of the Mafia heads] what he meant by the phrase: "I am pulling with me three magistrates, three prosecuting attorneys, two or three prosecutors of the Andreotti trial."
I was left literally speechless hearing Di Maggio, who had asked that the screen around him be taken away, and had turned toward the left, saying something in Sicilian that I did not understand, with reference to the names Lo Forte, Scarpinato, and Natoli, who with dignity did not betray the slightest reaction. This was a moment that shocked me. (…)

Knowledge of cause
In my inevitable moments of depression and fatigue, I was greatly helped by the testimony rendered in this trial by persons who, without prejudice and with knowledge of cause, attested to my true reputation.
As examples of all of them, I cite here only the three United States Ambassadors Rabb, Secchia, and Walters, whose journey across the ocean to appear at the trial seems to me particularly significant.
Mr. President, esteemed judges, in the course of almost seven years, I have avoided any gesture or stance which could in any way weaken the action of the State, limiting myself, for my part, to only what was strictly necessary for my own self-defense. (…)
Mr. President, esteemed judges, I have nothing to criticize concerning the dogged insistence shown by the investigating magistrates in their unlimited range of investigations. I have been questioned and I dare say X-rayed with a thoroughness that knew no limits. They sought out even the people who use my tailor, and they went around the restaurants of Rome, including to one, "I Tre Moschettieri," which until now I had never even heard of. They even mistook-I hope in good faith-the passengers who were coming off the boat and my wife and I who were going onto the boat for a cruise on a Costa ship. They were meticulously searching for a refutation of my categorical statement that I had never had any relations with the Salvo brothers and that I found out only from the investigators that Mr. Nino Salvo, who greeted me as I came in with President Santi Mattarella and Minister Ruffini to a public reception after an electoral rally, was the owner of the Hotel Zagarella.
The notoriety of this Salvo family perhaps makes it in this context practically unbelievable that I did not know them. But why ever-since it has come out that until they ran afoul of the law, they were persons who were greatly sought out and with a wide range of acquaintances-why ever would I have tried to say I didn't know them, if this were not the truth, thus exposing myself to the risk of being shown to have lied?

About the famous "kiss"
There are some considerations that stem from basic logic and should not be ignored. Concerning the episode of the "kiss," if I had really gone in broad daylight to the home of a person who was under house arrest, to meet the super-fugitive Riina, you should not sentence me to imprisonment, but order that I be committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Mr. President, esteemed judges, from the moment when President Spadolini informed me of the initiative taken by these magistrates, I have gone through periods that were difficult in terms of my inner being; and I have had to trust numerous times in my faith in God and the conviction that the context in which I live and for which I have found myself working in positions of great responsibility has not lost its profound sense of legality and respect for the human rights of every citizen, including-without privileges but also without confusing the various fields-those who have devoted themselves to politics, trying to respond in every instant to the duties of their mission.
Whoever exercises his role in public life in a correct manner knows very well that he will not leave his children material goods. But there is a moral patrimony to which one must absolutely be true.
It is for this reason that I now await in confidence and serenity, Mr. President and esteemed judges, the decision of your Court.