Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 3, 1995                   TAG: 9503030122
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PALERMO, SICILY                                 LENGTH: Medium

ITALIAN STATESMAN IS LINKED TO MAFIA

The court set a Sept. 26 trial date in Palermo for the seven-time premier.

Andreotti, 76, becomes the highest senior Italian official ever to face trial on mob charges.

Andreotti, a senator-for-life who has waived his parliamentary immunity from prosecution, insists he led a crusade to cripple the mob. He insists he is the victim of a vendetta to discredit his five decades in politics.

``We will be ready for trial when it comes,'' said defense attorney Franco Coppi.

Prosecutors built their case around testimony from Mafia turncoats and former members of Andreotti's Christian Democrat party, which dominated Italy's postwar politics until corruption probes wiped it out last year.

Prosecutors had constructed an elaborate portrait of Andreotti's alleged double life: a political patriarch who traded views with world leaders and swapped favors with Sicily's underworld.

Last week, defense lawyers presented letters signed by Andreotti in the 1980s ordering a full-scale effort to capture the reputed ``boss of bosses'' of the Sicilian Mafia, Salvatore ``Toto'' Riina.

Riina was captured in 1993, a year after Andreotti's last term as premier. Riina and 36 others went on trial last week in the 1992 bombing that killed anti-Mafia crusader Judge Giovanni Falcone.

Prosecutors' claims boil down to a pact between two powerful groups. For Andreotti's Christian Democrats, the Mafia guaranteed votes and political control of Sicily, prosecutors allege. The Mafia benefited by having a friend at the top.