Berlusconi ally denies link with Mafia
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An ally of Premier Silvio Berlusconi who was convicted of associating with the Sicilian Mafia has denied being a link between that criminal syndicate and the media mogul.
In TV and radio interviews broadcast Saturday, Marcello Dell'Utri, a senator in Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party, dismissed the Sicilian appeals court's ruling in June that he was an associate of Cosa Nostra as a "fairy tale."
The panel of judges in a 600-page document explained why it convicted Dell'Utri. It said he served as a kind of "mediator" between Mafia bosses and Berlusconi in the years before the premier entered politics.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The judges wrote that Dell'Utri helped secure the Mafia's OK for Berlusconi to set up TV transmitters on Sicily decades ago.