Berlusconi: it's me who sent Dell'Utri to Lebanon, to help Amine Gemayel, because Vladimir Putin asked me to do so.

Sunday, 13 April 2014. The mystery around the disappearance of Berlusconi's aide Marcello Dell'Utri gets more and more mysterious, as the fugitive is backed up by the former prime minister (who - in turn - says the idea was Vladimir Putin's...).

The first news to hit the headlines was that in the run up to a definitive sentence regarding the accusations of links to the Sicilian Mafia, prosecutors weren't able to locate Berlusconi's long-time friend and aide Mr Dell'Utri, and therefore he was declared “fugitive” by the Italian magistrates.

Marcello Dell'Utri and Berlusconi: 

Then Dell'Utri's mobile phone was traced in Beirut, even though his lawyers issued a statement (last Friday) saying that he never went to Lebanon, he was in France, and he never meant to escape, he was just being cured (underwent a angioplasty surgery).

Silvio Berlusconi and the Sicilian clans

Monday, December 10, 2012. As the secretary of the People of Liberty party (PdL) Angelino Alfano states that Silvio Berlusconi's good friend Marcello Dell'Utri is a “miserable man”, the centre-right party's crisis becomes quite evident.

RAI TV programme Porta a Porta (Door to Door) or Italian journalist Bruno Vespa's  lounge – as the late night talk show is frequently called – is a hot spot for discussions, quarrels, rows, and – sometimes – fights, especially when general elections are in sight.

... if Alfano strikes...

And this is the case, because general election will take place in Italy as soon as February 2012. But normally all the squabbling and skirmishing happens between members of different parties and movements. This time the discussion is within Berlusconi's PdL (People of Liberty), to be more precise, within the Sicilian tribes of the party.