Prosecutors Seek Indictment of Italy’s Ex-Premier Andreotti

Prosecutors have asked a judge to indict former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, Italy’s leading postwar politician, for ties to the Mafia.

Andreotti has been under investigation for more than a year in Sicily for allegedly associating with Mafia bosses.

News reports Saturday said that prosecutors took the formal step of asking a judge to hand down an indictment. When the step was taken was not clear. News reports quoted prosecutors as saying the decision to go forward was made in April. There was no indication of when there would be a ruling.

The Senate voted last June to lift Andreotti’s parliamentary immunity from investigation and prosecution.

Andreotti, 75, was premier seven times and a leading figure of the Christian Democrats. The party dominated Italian politics for decades after World War II until a long-running kickback probe brought it down.

A trial would be the most sensational in Italy’s postwar period because Andreotti was for decades the country’s most internationally recognized politician.

Much of the case against the politician rests on the word of six former Mafia members who are cooperating with authorities.

The former Mafia members have accused Andreotti of being the point man for organized crime in Rome’s halls of political power.

Andreotti said the mob witnesses were the subject of “rather able manipulation.”