ROME – A preliminary trial has begun in Florence over a request by prosecutors to indict Marcello dell'Utri, the former business partner and confident of late former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and his wife Miranda Ratti, on charges of violating Italian anti-mafia legislation by allegedly not declaring the over 42 million euros donated to them by the media mogul for what magistrates suspect was 'hush money' for keeping silent about Berlusconi's alleged links to Cosa Nostra.

  Dell’Ultri, who was convicted and initially sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014 for ‘mafia association,’ who was known as a ‘mediator’ between Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, and Berlusconi. He was freed from prison after serving four years, with just over an additional year under house arrest. 

 In March of last year 10.8 million euros was seized from Dell’Ultri but both he and his wife have contested this as well as the accusation that they committed the crime of transferring fraudulent funds. During this first pre-hearing Dell'Utri's defense lawyer requested that the trial be moved from Florence to Milan. 

 The prosecutors in their request that Dell'Utri be sent for trail say the that the payments from Berlusconi to him and his wife were considered to be "the financial compensation for damages undergone by Dell’Ultri to ensure the impunity" of the former premier and were given "in order to conceal the grave crime of participation in" the assassination of anti-Mafia magistrates in Sicily. 

 Judge Anna Liguori is due to rule on the request for indictment next week. 

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