London, may 19 (ANI): Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi paid his mafia godfathers 300,000 pounds a year in protection money, a mobster super grass told a court yesterday.
According to The Sun, Giovanni Brusca, known as il Porco - the Pig, - claimed Berlusconi handed over the cash to have "things kept in order" when he was a businessman.
He said: "It was all tied to his business activities in Sicily."Brusca, 54, added that some 30 years ago local godfather Stefano Bontade "invested a lot of money through Berlusconi".
He said that when Bontade was gunned down in 1981, the cash went to boss-of-bosses Toto Riina.
Brusca went on: "He then stopped paying so we had to arrange a hit so that he would start to pay again."
He did not go into details - but it is thought he was referring to a 1986 bomb attack that damaged Berlusconi's villa in Milan.
Brusca turned super grass after his arrest in 1996. He was convicted of the 1992 murder of a judge and the kidnapping of a fellow mobster's 11-year-old son, who he had killed and dissolved in acid.
He admits murdering "between 100 and 200 people" and is testifying amid tight security in Rome in the case of two policemen accused of corruption.
Berlusconi has always denied mob links - but a stable manager at his home in the 1970s was later convicted of being a Mafia killer.
Berlusconi, 74, is currently being prosecuted himself for alleged underage sex and abusing his position. (ANI)
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