A fresh spy furore erupted in Italy on Thursday, this time involving Premier Romano Prodi and his family.
Milan prosecutors said they were investigating a spy ring which had gained unauthorised access to the centre-left premier's tax returns and other fiscal records, including financial investment details.
They said more than 100 illegal checks had been carried out on the tax status of Prodi and his wife Flavia and that some 130 people were now under investigation, including dozens of employees at the tax and customs offices and several members of the tax police.
Searches have been carried out on the homes and offices of all those under investigation. Prosecutors said the tax records of at least 18 other
people including top public officials, showbusiness celebrities and well-known sports figures had also been illegally accessed.
Last month, Italy was rocked by a massive wiretap scandal involving telecommunications giant Telecom and its parent company, the tyre group Pirelli. A bugging ring was uncovered which had gathered illicit data on politicians, businessmen and media figures as well as ordinary Italians but it is not yet known for what ends and for whom.
The new spy case came to light after a complaint filed last month by the Treasury, which noticed that Prodi's tax records had been accessed a suspiciously large number of times, particularly in the run-up to the April general election.
Investigators said the illicit activities reached a peak between March 30 and April 8, when several Italian newspapers carried articles containing personal financial details of the Prodi family. The articles focused on a gift of some 860,000 euros made by Prodi and his wife to their two children in 2003.
The money was used to buy homes for the Prodi offspring.
During the election campaign, former premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party used the information to attack Prodi, accusing the former European Commission chief of taking advantage of a law introduced by the centre right allowing him to avoid taxes on the gift. Prodi's spokesman Silvio Sircana said on Thursday that the premier was "deeply disturbed and concerned" by the spying case.
He stressed that "these illegal activities have shown themselves to be pointless and counterproductive as far as the Prodi family are concerned".
Members of the governing coalition also expressed alarm.
Democratic Left chief Piero Fassino, whose party is the largest in the governing coalition, pointed the finger at Berlusconi and former economy minister Giulio Tremonti. "I believe Berlusconi and his economy minister, who was responsible for overseeing the tax office, should explain to
parliament what happened," Fassino said. "Spying activities were going on to the damage of political leaders and public institutions... Full light must be shed on the case with the identification of those who authorised or ordered these acts," he said.
The Greens and the Italian Communists' Party said that "powers exist which are trying to destabilise our entire democratic system".
But the Berlusconi-led opposition rejected the accusations and said Prodi was attempting to shift attention away from the unpopular 2007 budget.
The 40-billion-euro deficit-cutting budget, branded a tax sting by the opposition, has dented Prodi's post-election popularity.
Berlusconi's spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said that "nobody can blame the previous government... the fact that Prodi's tax details were accessed so many times is proof that we are dealing with widespread practices". "We are certain that this is an attempt to distract public opinion and mask the government's difficulties," Bonaiuti said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors are still carrying out investigations into the phone bugging ring which came to public light in September and which is also known to have spied on Prodi.
Some 20 people have been arrested in the probe, including Telecom's former head of security Luciano Tavaroli; Pirelli security chief Pierguido Tezzi; the owner of a Florence-based private investigation firm Polis d'Istinto, Manuele Cipriani; and several police officers.
Cipriani, whose Polis d'Istinto received tens of millions of euros from Pirelli and Telecom, had regular contact with members of Italian military intelligence service SISMI, as did Tavaroli.
The government recently passed an emergency decree ordering the destruction of the information gathered by the bugging ring.
