BBC NEWS

A court in Rome has acquit­ted all five defen­dants of mur­der charges in the 1982 death of Roberto Calvi, known as “God’s Banker” for his Vat­i­can ties.

Mr Calvi, the chair­man of a pri­vate Ital­ian bank, Banco Ambrosiano, was found hang­ing from scaf­fold­ing under London’s Black­fri­ars Bridge in 1982.

A British inquest ruled the death sui­cide, but the case was reopened at the insis­tence of Mr Calvi’s family.

Mr Calvi died as his bank col­lapsed in one of Italy’s largest fraud scandals.

City of Lon­don Police, who ini­tially inves­ti­gated Mr Calvi’s death, said it was “dis­ap­point­ing for Roberto Calvi’s fam­ily in par­tic­u­lar that those respon­si­ble for his mur­der have still not faced justice”.

In a state­ment, the City of Lon­don Police said they had “worked closely with the Ital­ian author­i­ties since 2003 to bring this case to a suc­cess­ful conclusion.”

Cleared of mur­der charges are Giuseppe Calo, alleged to be a cashier for the Sicil­ian Mafia; Mr Calvi’s close asso­ciate, busi­ness­man Flavio Car­boni; busi­ness­man Ernesto Dio­tal­levi; Mr Calvi’s body­guard and dri­ver Sil­vano Vit­tor; and Mr Carboni’s ex-girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig.

Calo has been in prison since the 1980s on Mafia charges unre­lated to Mr Calvi’s death.

Pros­e­cu­tors had said Ms Klein­szig should be acquit­ted due lack of evi­dence but had asked for life sen­tences for the other four.

The pros­e­cu­tion alleged that they lured Mr Calvi to Lon­don and into the hands of his murderers.

Unan­swered questions

Mr Calvi was linked to the Vat­i­can bank, and pros­e­cu­tors also said he was laun­der­ing money for the Mafia.

Mob bosses feared he knew where their money was going and where it was hid­den and was prepar­ing to tell all, pros­e­cu­tors said.

In June 1982, his pri­vate bank col­lapsed with debts of $1.5bn (£750m).

An inves­ti­ga­tion began in Italy but, a few days later, Calvi’s body was hang­ing from Black­fri­ars Bridge in London.

Cash and stones were stuffed into his pockets.

The first inquest ruled it was sui­cide but years later his body was exhumed, reveal­ing clues sug­gest­ing he had been murdered.

Foren­sic tests con­ducted in 2003 con­cluded there was no evi­dence on Mr Calvi’s shoes and cloth­ing that he had climbed the scaf­fold­ing, indi­cat­ing he had been killed elsewhere.

The two-year trial leaves more ques­tions than answers, says the BBC’s Chris­t­ian Fraser in Rome.

The defence sug­gested more than once that there were plenty of oth­ers who had a motive for mur­der — some of them within the Vat­i­can — and they said any num­ber of these par­ties could have col­lab­o­rated and silenced Roberto Calvi.

CALVI KEY DATES
1971 : Becomes chair­man of Banco Ambrosiano
1981 : Con­victed of cor­rup­tion, but bailed pend­ing appeal
11 June 1982 : Leaves Italy with a suit­case of doc­u­ments
18 June 1982 : Body found
July 1982 : Sui­cide ver­dict
July 1983 : Open ver­dict at sec­ond inquest
1998 : Calvi’s body exhumed
Oct 2002 : Foren­sic report says Calvi mur­dered
July 2003 : Ital­ian pros­e­cu­tors name four sus­pects
Sept 2003 : City of Lon­don Police re-open inves­ti­ga­tion
Mar 2004 : Four appear at pre-trial hear­ing in Rome
April 2005 : Four peo­ple charged with mur­der in Italy
Octo­ber 2005 : Mur­der trial opens in Italy
June 2007 : Rome jury acquits five defendants