Four face trial over 1982 death of banker
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
April 19, 2005
Four suspects in the mysterious death of Roberto Calvi, known as "God's banker" because of his Vatican ties, have been charged with his murder and will go on trial in October, Italian media reported yesterday.
Roberto Calvi: found hanged in
London
Calvi, a member of the P2 secret masonic lodge and the head of the Banco Ambrosiano, a bank in which the Vatican had a key stake, was found hanged from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge during a visit to London in 1982.
His death came days after the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano following the disappearance of more than a billion dollars.
Italian reports said Flavio Carboni, the Sardinian businessman who accompanied Calvi to London, and Carboni's former girlfriend, Manuela Kleinzig, an Austrian, had been charged in connection with his murder.
Also charged were the Sicilian Mafia's jailed financial chief, Pippo Calo, and Ernesto Diotallevi, an Italian businessman.
Renato Borzone, a lawyer representing Carboni - one of the last people to see Calvi alive - rejected the charges. "The defence maintains that - based on examinations - Calvi committed suicide."
Yesterday's development
comes two years after a new autopsy established that Calvi did
not kill himself, as a London coroner had ruled. The report was
ordered by Rome magistrates acting on the claims of a supergrass
that the Mafia killed Calvi for unsuccessfully investing its
money.
Further Reading:
UK Freemasonry in the News, have the 'Brethren' finally met their Waterloo?
Roberto Calvi Murder/P2 Conspiracy Indepth - St. Peter's Squared
