Claudio Martelli (born 24 September 1943) is an Italian politician. He was the right-hand man of Bettino Craxi, the socialist Prime Minister from 1983–1987.

Biography

Martelli was born at Gessate, in the province of Milan. He graduated in Philosophy and joined the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892 ...

in 1966. In 1976, he was called by the leader of the party, Bettino Craxi, to continue his career in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. He was elected to the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...

in 1979 and became vice-leader (with Valdo Spini) of the party in 1981. He was also elected for the PSI at the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

in 1984. In 1989, he was nominated as vice- President of the Council and in 1991 became

Minister for Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

in both of the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

s of Giulio Andreotti (1989–1992). In 1990, the Italian Immigration law known as the Martelli Law was passed in parliament. During Tangentopoli, he ran for the party leadership after the resignation of Bettino Craxi, after Craxi was accused of corruption. However, his

candidacy Candidacy is a rite which takes place during Roman Catholic seminary formation, by which the Church recognizes the seminarian as worthy of being ordained (hence, they become a "candidate" for ordination to the priesthood). With the liturgical ref ...

was blown off by his involvement in the 7 million dollar bribe in 1980 and resigned as Minister of Justice.Italian minister falls victim to corruption
The Independent, February 11, 1993 He exited the political world to deal with his judicial cases. In 1997, after concluding his legal battles, he founded '' Mondoperaio'' (former magazine of the PSI). In the same year he was elected to the

for the Italian Social Democrats. However, in 2000, he left the SDI and joined the

Socialist Party – New PSI The New Italian Socialist Party or New PSI ( it, Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano or ''Nuovo PSI'', NPSI), more recently styled as Liberal Socialists – NPSI, is a List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy which professes a Soc ...

. He became spokesman for the party but was not elected to the Italian Parliament in 2001 and left the party in 2005. In 2005, for second time, he left the political spectrum and became a presenter of a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

political program.

Judicial proceedings

In the Tangentopoli scandal, regarding the illicit financing of the Socialist Party, Martelli was sentenced to 8 months in prison in 2000, suspended on probation, after confessing, for having received ₤ 500 million in the case of the Enimont maxi-tangent. According to court documents,

Roberto Calvi Roberto Calvi (13 April 1920 – 17 June 1982) was an Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" () by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in o ...

paid bribes to Martelli during the

Banco Ambrosiano Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank that collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi, and his membership in the illegal former Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due (aka P2). The Vatican-based Institute for t ...

affair; however in this case he was not convicted. His name was again brought to the attention of the judicial chronicles as part of the State-Mafia Pact trial, when the ex

Cosa nostra The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia- terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sic ...

killer, Francesco Onorato, told of the start of the strategy of the massacres prepared by Totò Riina after the sentence of the trial: "In the list of people to kill, as I learned from Salvatore Biondino, the ambassador of the commission, there were Lima, Andreotti and his son, the former ministers Mannino, Vizzini, but also Martelli. We were the ones who had Martelli elected as minister of Justice: in 1987 we had financed his electoral campaign with ₤ 200 million. And then Martelli kept his promises, because he gave to some members of the mafia the hospital arrests".^"Trattativa, il j'accuse del pentito Onorato "Dalla Chiesa ucciso per ordine di Andreotti-Craxi""
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martelli, Claudio 1943 births Living people People from the Province of Milan Deputy Prime Ministers of Italy Italian Ministers of Justice Italian Socialist Party MEPs MEPs for Italy 1999–2004 MEPs for Italy 1984–1989 MEPs for Italy 1989–1994 New Italian Socialist Party politicians