Four face 'God's banker' trial
Four people have been sent for trial charged with murdering Roberto Calvi, the banker who was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge nearly 23 years ago.
A judge in a pre-trial review found there was enough evidence to charge Giuseppe "Pippo" Calo, Flavio Carboni, Ernesto Diotallevi and Manuela Kleinszig with murder.
The hearing has been taking place in Rome's central criminal court for the last two years and the decision comes after Scotland Yard announced last year it was reopening the investigation.
Calvi was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in July 1982, with bricks and banknotes stuffed in his pockets.
Head of the failed Banco Ambrosiano, which crashed with millions of pounds in debts, he was known as "God's banker" because of his close ties with the Vatican Bank.
Authorities in London immediately said it was suicide but prosecutorsand Calvi's family have long believed he was murdered by the Mafia after a bungled ?150 million money-laundering operation.
Prosecutors also argued that he was murdered to ensure his silence because he knew of Mafia links with politicians and other high-profile figures in Italy.
Calo, a jailed Mafia member, appeared on a videolink. Diotallevi, whereabouts unknown, is the former boss of a Mafia family in Rome.
Carboni is on bail and was the only one of the four in court to hear the judge's decision. Kleinszig, who was Carboni's girlfriend at the time of Calvi's death, is thought to be in Austria.
Prosecutors Maria Monteleone and Luca Tescaroli told the court the motives for Calvi's murder were "the mishandling of Mafia money and fears that he would reveal secret links between organised crime and politicians."
Judge Orlando Villoni took just over 45 minutes to reach his decision and said there was enough evidence to commit the four to trial on murder charges.
Outside court, Carboni said: "If you ask me, Calvi committed suicide. I hope that at the trial my own personal ordeal comes through all this. This whole saga is a load of rubbish."
His lawyer Renato Borzone added: "We maintain that, on the evidence heard, Calvi committed suicide and was not murdered.
"We intend to fight this decision. The hearing in London said this was a suicide; now a hearing in Rome has said this was murder - all on the same evidence. When this comes to trial we will attack and prove this was suicide."
Today prosecutor Tescaroli said: "This is just the end of the beginning. Now comes the real task, but the judge has agreed with what we said and sent the four for trial."
