Prosecutors have asked that a former city health councillor be sentenced to nine years and six months for being in cahoots with Cosa Nostra.
Domenico Miceli, 42, was arrested in June 2003 for allegedly acting as A link between a Mafia chief and top Sicilian politicians, including Region President Salvatore Cuffaro.
Miceli, who like Cuffaro is a member of the centrist UDC party, stepped down as Palermo councillor for health affairs the previous February, two months after his name was publicly linked with that of suspected Mafia boss Giuseppe Guttadauro, a high-profile doctor who was arrested in December 2002.
Lawyers for Micheli have argued that he was 'exploited' by Cosa Nostra in order to establish contacts with political figures and institutions because "no one would have believed this from such an upstanding figure".
The defense also argued that their client was no longer in a position to be of any use to the Mafia.
Cuffaro, who has since been re-elected, was notified the day of Miceli's arrest that he was formally under investigation because his name had come up frequently in wire taps.
The region chief, a former radiologist, is currently on trial on charges of helping Cosa Nostra by passing on information about police anti-Mafia investigations to a group of 'informers', including police officers and politicians, who passed information on sensitive Mafia probes to the Mob.
Cuffaro has rejected all accusations and said he is "confident" that in time his innocence will be demonstrated.
Miceli was arrested together with Vincenzo Greco, a 54-year-old doctor with a record of Mafia connections and Guttadauro's brother-in-law.
Also arrested were Francesco Buscemi, 72, a former employee of Palermo's department of public works who at one time was a close aide to the late Vito Ciancimino, an ex-Palermo mayor convicted of Mafia; and Salvatore Aragona, 45, defined by police as the man who successfully ran Miceli's campaign in the 2001 regional elections, allegedly in return for favors to the Mafia.
Buscemi, Aragona and Greco were also charged with laundering money for Guttadauro and his family, depositing it in foreign accounts, and fronting the boss's real estate holdings.
Wire-tap evidence showed that they and alleged Mafia figures met at Guttadauro's house to discuss political affairs and the support they were going to offer to political parties.
Cuffaro's name was reported to have come up frequently as the person to turn to for financial aid, favors in the health service and to place candidates approved by the Mafia on electoral slates.
Police are in possession of a video tape showing Cuffaro in a 2001 meeting at Palermo's central Excelsior Hotel with Greco and Miceli.
Cuffaro told investigators that the meeting had been arranged by Miceli, who had wanted to introduce the region president to a fellow doctor.
