Italian
former PM admits using cocaine
Venerated Christian
Democrat's admission adds fuel to debate over liberal
drugs
legislation
John Hooper in Rome
Tuesday November 25
2003
The Guardian
One of Italy's most honoured statesmen, the
former prime minister Emilio
Colombo, 83, has stunned prosecutors in Rome by
telling them he is a
regular cocaine user.
Mr. Colombo, a former
president of the European parliament said he used the
drug for "therapeutic
purposes".
His disclosure was made voluntarily to prosecutors
investigating a ring
alleged to have supplied drugs and prostitutes to high
society figures.
The investigation has already seen allegations leveled
at a junior
minister in Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing government, a former
porn star
and the owner of one of Rome's most fashionable
restaurants.
Sources close to the inquiry said other famous names remain
- for the
moment - locked away in the prosecutors' files.
But Mr.
Colombo is in a class of his own. Earlier this year, he received
Italy's
highest political honour when the president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi,
gave him
a permanent seat in the upper house of parliament as a senator for
life.
Mr. Colombo led Italy between 1970 and 72 and has held almost
every senior
ministerial portfolio. As foreign minister in the 1980s, he
played an
important role the creation of a single European market.
He
offered his evidence to prosecutors last Thursday after 19 people had
been
arrested the day before in raids in and around Rome.
Two of those
arrested were Mr. Colombo's bodyguards, who were accused of
placing orders
for cocaine with a dealer three or four times a week.
Italy's news
agency, Ansa, said Mr. Colombo told prosecutors that the two
men
were innocent and that he was the true buyer.
He was quoted
as saying: "I have not been a user for long - not more than a
year, year and
a half."
His lawyers criticised the leaking of his statement but did not
challenge
the accuracy of the report.
The admission, by itself, does
not make him liable to prosecution because
consumption of drugs in Italy is
not a criminal offence. But it is a
misdemeanor and his admission could mean
he may have to appear before a
judge to be reprimanded.
Cocaine has
therapeutic applications as a local anaesthetic, to constrict
blood vessels
and raise blood pressure.
Its use in medicine today is largely confined
to oral and plastic surgery.
Yesterday's disclosures are also
embarrassing for the Vatican. Mr. Colombo
was a pillar of the Vatican-backed
Christian Democrat party for more than
40 years and a strong advocate of
family values.
In his statement Mr. Colombo is reported to have
acknowledged taking cocaine
from an alleged pusher - one Giuseppe Martello -
who is also accused of
involvement in the supply of prostitutes.
Mr.
Colombo's alleged fellow customers included Serena Grandi, a star of
Graffiante Desiderio (Clawing Desire), a porn film.
The latest
revelations have also fuelled the debate over drugs in Italy. Mr.
Berlusconi's rightwing government is committed to introducing legislation
which would abolish the distinction between hard and soft drugs and
introduce stiff penalties for possession as well as
trafficking.
Opponents have pounced on the fact that last week's arrest
warrants named a
junior minister, also a Christian Democrat, as another of
Mr. Martello's
customers.
The investigation, codenamed Operation
Cleopatra, involved more than a year
of undercover work by Rome's
detectives. In an intercepted telephone
conversation, also leaked to the
press, the owner of a restaurant in the
centre of Rome is quoted passing on
to Mr. Martello the complaints of
someone he identifies as a customer of
them both.
The man had been provided with a prostitute at an agreed rate
of
€1,000 (£700). "She tells him, straight-off at the
beginning '[No
more than] one hour and a condom."
"And he goes bloody
crazy," the restaurateur was quoted as saying.