Editing Propaganda Due (section)

==The consequences and judicial investigations==
{{blockquote|P2 was dissolved by law, but its system of political, financial and criminal relations may have survived [...] As for Dr Berlusconi, his current interventionism is symptomatic of the reaction of a part of the old regime which, having accumulated wealth and power in the eighties, intends to continue to influence political life in the nineties as well.|[[Luciano Violante]], President of the Anti-Mafia Commission<ref>Marco Marsili, ''[https://books.google.it/books?isbn=8897486002 Dalla P2 alla P4. Trent'anni di politica e affari all'ombra di Berlusconi]'', Termidoro, {{ISBN|978-88-97486-00-8}}.</ref>}}

The Court of Cassation decided that the Gelli case was the responsibility of the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, from which he was accused only of fraudulent activity and false pretences. In May 1983, the case against the P2 leaders was closed. Later, Judge Ghwerardo Colombo declared that if the investigation had remained in Milan, "Bribesville" would have erupted a decade earlier, given the amount of information in Gelli's papers.<ref>{{cite video|language=it|url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V1W1H4m2qhI&feature=youtu.be|title=La P2 di Licio Gelli: la Loggia Massonica che manovrava l'Italia|publisher=Nova Lectio|year=2022}} (at minute 15:30).</ref>

The Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome began proceedings against Licio Gelli and about twenty other people, accused of political conspiracy, criminal association and other crimes. After an investigation that lasted almost ten years, in October 1991, the investigating judge at the Criminal Court of Rome requested that they be sent for trial. The trial lasted a year and a half and with the sentence on 16 April 1994, filed the following 26 July, the Court pronounced a sentence of acquittal of all the accused of the crime of attacking the Constitution through political conspiracy because the fact did not exist. The appeal was rejected, and on 27 March 1996, the Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence.<ref>Massimo Della Campa, ''[https://archive.org/details/lucesulgrandeori0000dell Luce sul Grande Oriente]'', Sperling & Kupfer, Milano 2005, {{ISBN|88-200-3924-9}}.</ref> Although subsequent judicial inquiries have (not without receiving criticism from many quarters) partly denied the conclusions of the commission of inquiry, tending to reduce the influence of the lodge<ref>''[http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1996/03/28/la-p2-non-cospiro-contro-lo.html La P2 non cospirò contro lo Stato],''.</ref><ref>Vittorio Feltri, ''[https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/quei-150-miliardi-presi-ad-angelo-rizzoli-imbarazzano.html I 150 miliardi che imbarazzano il "Corriere"]'', il Giornale (31 May 2010).</ref> the discovery of the P2 case made people in Italy aware of the existence, in other systems and in other countries, of [[lobbying]], i.e. the exertion of political pressure on those in positions of power to influence the choices made in the running of the nation in a direction favourable to the lobbyists.

In 1987, Licio Gelli was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the Court of Assizes of Florence for having financed members of the Tuscan extreme right, involved in the attacks on the Florence-Bologna railway line.<ref name="Zavoli, 1992" /> Two years later, on appeal, the judges declared that they did not have to proceed against the accused because, at the time of his extradition from Switzerland, political offences had been excluded.<ref name="Zavoli, 1992" /> The Supreme Court ordered a new trial, stating that Gelli should have been fully acquitted<ref name="Zavoli, 1992" /> and on 9 October 1991, the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Florence acquitted him with a broad formulation.<ref name="Zavoli, 1992">Sergio Zavoli, ''La notte della Repubblica'', Roma, Nuova Eri, 1992.</ref>

On 23 November 1995, Gelli was definitively convicted of misleading the court in the trial for the massacre in Bologna that took place on 2 August 1980, in which 85 people were killed and 200 were injured.<ref name="Bianconi, 1995">Giovanni Bianconi, ''[http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,14/articleid,0685_01_1995_0317_0014_9266168/ Due colpevoli per la strage di Bologna]'', in ''[[La Stampa]]'' (24 November 1995). Retrieved 4 August 2016.</ref> The misdirection was carried out, in collaboration with the [[SISMI]] general [[Pietro Musumeci]] (a member of P2), the Carabinieri colonel {{Ill|Giuseppe Belmonte|it}} and the wheeler-dealer [[Francesco Pazienza]],<ref name="Bianconi, 1995" /> by placing a suitcase loaded with weapons, explosives, ammunition, flight tickets and false documents on the Taranto-Milan train on 13 January 1981.<ref>{{Ill|Carlo Lucarelli}}, ''[https://archive.org/details/nuovimisteridita0000luca Nuovi misteri d'Italia. I casi di Blu notte]'', Einaudi, 2004, {{ISBN|978-8806167400}}.</ref> Licio Gelli was also found guilty of fraud regarding the bankruptcy of [[Banco Ambrosiano]], which was connected to the Vatican bank, the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) (there was a $1.3 billion hole in the bank).

Over time, equal attention has been paid to the fate of the piduisti, some of whom have been publicly successful in politics or entertainment, while others have returned to anonymity. Some have been freed from the social stigma (Silvio Berlusconi successfully entered politics, becoming Prime Minister four times in fifteen years; [[Fabrizio Cicchitto]] returned to politics; Maurizio Costanzo made a self-defence speech and maintained his career as a journalist). Berlusconi himself declared to Iceberg (a political programme broadcast on Telelombardia): "I have never been part of P2. And in any case, according to the sentences of the Republic's courts, being a P2 member is not a demerit. [...] I read about these projects later. A set-up: P2 was a scoop that made the fortune of La Repubblica and L'Espresso, it was an exploitation that unfortunately destroyed many protagonists of the political, cultural and journalistic life of our country."<ref>Vittorio Testa, ''[http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2000/03/07/berlusconi-essere-piduisti-non-un-titolo-di.html Berlusconi: Essere piduisti non è un titolo di demerito]'', in ''la Repubblica'' (7 March 2000).</ref> Massimo D'Alema, ther then Prime Minister, replied: "Being a member of the Pide means having participated in an organisation, a secret sect that plotted against the State, and this has been ratified by Parliament. An opinion that I share."<ref>Paola Di Caro, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20151212001447/http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2000/marzo/08/Berlusconi_sconcerta_gli_alleati_co_0_00030810231.shtml P2,Berlusconi sconcerta gli alleati]'', in ''Corriere della Sera'' (March 8, 2000).</ref>

From 2007 onwards, Licio Gelli was placed under house arrest in his villa Wanda in [[Arezzo]], to serve a 12-year sentence for the Banco Ambrosiano's [[bankruptcy]]. In an interview with la Repubblica on September 28, 2003, during the Berlusconi II government, he said:<ref>[[Concita De Gregorio]], ''[http://www.repubblica.it/2003/i/sezioni/politica/gelli/gelli/gelli.html Giustizia, tv, ordine pubblico è finita proprio come dicevo io]'', in ''Repubblica.it'' (28 September 2003).</ref>
{{blockquote|I am enjoying a peaceful old age. Every morning I talk to the voices of my conscience, and it is a dialogue that calms me. I look at the country, I read the newspapers and I think: here it is, everything is being realised little by little, piece by piece. Maybe yes, I should have the copyright. Justice, TV, public order. I wrote it all thirty years ago in 53 points.}}