Bullets mailed to Berlusconi prosecutor

Milan, May 24 (IANS/AKI) Two bullets and written threats were mailed to magistrate Ilda Boccassini, prosecutor in the sex trial of former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, Milan's chief public prosecutor said.

Dubbed "Ilda the Red" due to her flaming red hair, Boccassini has also prosecuted Berlusconi in earlier cases.

"In recent weeks, a growing number of letters with serious threats have been sent to Boccassini. She received one with two bullets inside," Edmondo Bruti Liberati said in a statement.

The statement said Milan's magistrates would not be intimidated by such threats.

"Milan's public prosecutor's office and its magistrates will continue to calmly carry out their investigations and support the prosecution in legal cases with the most rigourous respect for the rules and the right to fair trial, in keeping with the constitutional principle of equality before the law," it said.

Earlier, Boccassini asked a Milan court to give Berlusconi five years in jail for corruption and one more year for paying an underage Moroccan nightclub dancer for sex.

In 2002, she led a trial in which Berlusconi was accused of bribing judges during the 1980s to gain control of the state-owned SME food conglomerate.

He was acquitted in the SME case, in part due to the statute of limitations.

Boccassini worked closely in the 1990s with anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was assassinated in Palermo in May 1992.

--IANS/AKI

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