http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2491937.stm

Andreotti judge gets death threat

Andreotti has vowed to clear his name
The Italian judge who found former Prime Minister
Giulio Andreotti guilty of ordering a Mafia murder has
received a death threat.

Lino Verrina is chairman of the Perugia appeals court
which imposed a 24-year jail sentence on Mr Andreotti
on Sunday.

Mr Andreotti, a giant in Italian
post-war politics, had been accused
of asking the Mafia to murder an
investigative journalist who was
thought to have damaging
information about him.

Mr Verrina has said he is now
under 24-hour police
protection, after an
anonymous caller rang the
courthouse to warn him he
would be killed.

Falcone threat

The caller reportedly said: "We shall make you end up
like Falcone" - a reference to top anti-Mafia judge
Giovanni Falcone, who was murdered in a huge bomb
attack in 1992.

A second judge at the court, Maurizio Muscato, is also
reported to be under protection.

Mr Verrina has insisted the threat will not force him to
change his daily exercise routine.

"It's not the first time that I have had to deal with
death threats," the veteran judge told the daily Corriere
della Sera.

"Then, as now, I remained calm,"
he said, adding "I will continue to
live as before, going to the gym
and jogging."

Police have also begun an
inquiry into the threat.

Mr Andreotti, who denies
his guilt, is expected to
appeal against his
conviction.

The court found him guilty
of complicity in the murder
of journalist Mino Pecorelli,
hit by four bullets in Rome
in 1979.

A lower court cleared Mr Andreotti of involvement three
years ago.

Sunday's guilty verdict was greeted with a wave of
condemnation of Italian political leaders and media.

The Perugia appeals court cleared two men of carrying
out the shooting.

One other man was found guilty - Gaetano
Badalamenti, who is already serving a sentence in the
US for Mafia-related drugs offences.