Fugitive financier surrenders quietly

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 11

Fugitive financier surrenders quietly

NZPA-Reuter Geneva The fugitive financier, Licio Gelli, wanted in connection with some of postwar Europe’s most sensational crimes, has surrendered quietly to a Swiss judge after evading an international manhunt for more than four years. “He looks exhausted, at the end of his tether,” a Geneva judge, JeanPierre Trembley, told a news conference. Gelli, who in August, 1983, stunned Switzerland by escaping from its top security Champ-Dollon Prison, walked into Judge Trembley’s chambers flanked by four lawyers. The 68-year-old businessman has been charged in Italy in connection with:

• The bombing of the Bologna Railway Station in 1980 in which 85 people died. • Collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in 1982, Italy’s biggest private bankruptcy which sent shockwaves through international financial centres.

• Heading the clandestine P2 Masonic Lodge, which was uncovered by investigators in 1981 in a scandal that rocked Italian politics and helped

bring down the Christian Democrat Government of Arnaldo Forlani.

Gelli’s lawyers said he intended to ' confront his accusers, in Italy as well as in Switzerland.” “He did nut wish to end his days a fugitive and in exile,” a statement by his .lawyers said. They said that he was in poor health and wanted to undergo heart surgery in Geneva. But investigators hope he will cast some light on an array of murky financial deals round the world as well as his influence in Italian politics. Judge Trembley said Gelli will first face charges in Geneva for corruption and assisting in his own escape from Champ-Dollon Prison, which together carry a maximum 4% -year sentence.

The Swiss High Court approved Gelli’s extradition to Italy soon after he escaped in 1983, and as soon as he serves his time in Switzerland he will be handed over. Gelli was arrested in Geneva in September, 1982, While trying to withdraw part of an estimated SUSU2 million (5181.4 M he stashed away in Swiss

banks, mostly deposited by subsidiaries of the Banco Ambrosiano. Authorities have since blocked the funds. ;

Another mystery which investigators hope Gelli will help to clear up is the death of Robert Calvi, the former head of Banco Ambrosiano and a close associate of Gelli. Mr Calvi, . known as “God’s banker” because of his close ties to the Vatican, was found dead in June, 1982, hanging by the heck under London’s Blackfriars Bridge. Soon after his death Banco Ambrosiano collapsed with SUSI.2 billion of bad debts.