Ex-Italian PM's rights 'abused'

Craxi's phone was tapped by police

The Italian authorities breached the human rights of late Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, the European Court has ruled.

The court, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, upheld a submission by relatives that Craxi's entitlement to privacy had been infringed.

Transcripts of some of Craxi's telephone conversations, which had been secretly recorded by police, were read out in court and found their way into the Italian media in 1995.

The court awarded his widow and two children 2,000 euros each in damages.

Craxi, who had fled to Tunisia the year before to escape prosecution for corruption, was jailed in his absence for four-and-a-half years.

He died in exile in 2000 and was buried in the North African country.