Berlusconi forgives New Year's Eve attacker

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi telephoned the man who struck at him in a busy Rome piazza on New Year’s Eve, ensuring him of forgiveness and reassuring the his worried mother that he would not press charges, a report said today.

Italian bricklayer, Roberto Dal Bosco, 28, hit Mr Berlusconi in the head with a camera tripod in the Piazza Navona, bruising his neck. Dal Bosco insisted at his hearing that he only meant to poke the tripod in the premier’s direction to impress some young women with him, news reports have said.

Dal Bosco sent Mr Berlusconi a message of apology, and the prime minister telephoned his home today, defence lawyer Giovanni Tripodi said, adding that he had few details on their exchange. Mr Berlusconi’s office declined to comment.

The Ansa news agency reported that Dal Bosco put his mother on the phone with the premier.

“Signora, don’t worry,” Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying by Ansa. “I won’t press charges. For me, the episode is closed.”

Mr Berlusconi even invited Dal Bosco, who is from the northern Italian city of Mantua, to come see him in Rome, the report said.

After the incident on Friday, Dal Bosco was quickly taken into custody. A day later, a judge ruled that he could be released on his own recognisance – a decision that sparked an outcry from some of Mr Berlusconi’s conservative allies, who said he deserved harsher treatment.

Mr Berlusconi, who suffered no serious injuries in the incident, was photographed wearing a large white bandage to cover a bruise on his neck.

Dal Bosco quickly became a subject of jokes, especially among the opposition. Communist newspaper Il Manifesto reported that radical leftists sent each other New Year’s text messages on their mobile phones urging “more tripods for all”.