Political chameleon Sergio De Gregorio shows his true colours
Sergio De Gregorio, who took Hong Kong into the heart of Italian intrigue, has demonstrated his mastery in navigating the murky waters of politics
If the Italian philosopher Machiavelli were still around today, he may well form the view that Sergio De Gregorio was a worthy exponent of the political dark arts.
The former Italian senator - who is facing a corruption trial alongside former premier Silvio Berlusconi and claims he was part of a plot to subvert the Hong Kong legal system by blocking the transfer of key evidence against Berlusconi - has a history of shifting political allegiances in the murky world of Italian politics.
De Gregorio's allegations over the transfer of crucial evidence from Hong Kong to lawyers in Milan who are prosecuting a fraud and money-laundering case against Berlusconi's son Pier Silvio, two Hong Kong businesswomen Katherine Hsu May-chun and Paddy Chan Mei-yiu, and eight others, are being taken seriously in Italy. They have also been partially corroborated by official documents and statements given by those who met him.
Now, as De Gregorio and Hong Kong take a key role in Italy's biggest political crisis in years, his chameleon-like political instincts have kicked in again. Facing trial, stripped of parliamentary immunity from prosecution, he has cut a deal with prosecutors - to give them the dope on Berlusconi in return for no jail time.
Portraying himself as the repentant wrongdoer, he told an Italian television station: "When you are in politics, you have to soil your hands. I will not soil my hands again."
Married with three children, De Gregorio, 53, grew up in the Naples in the 1970s, when mafia boss Raffaele Cutolo was trying to unify the disparate criminal factions that make up the neapolitan Camorra, sparking violent clashes between rival gangs. His first job was as a journalist documenting organised crime in Italy's third-largest city.
Senator Paolo Guzzanti, a former political ally who met De Gregorio in the 1980s, recalls him as an outstanding journalist. "He found those kids who were committing robberies and interviewed the members of the mafia. He was a master of crime reporting," he said.
