Craxi, Bettino (Benedetto)

Italian socialist politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) 1976–93, prime minister 1983–87. In 1993 he was one of many politicians suspected of involvement in Italy's corruption network; in 1994 he was sentenced in absentia to eight and a half years in prison for accepting bribes, and in 1995 he received a further four-year sentence for corruption. In April 1996, with other former ministers, he was found guilty of further corruption charges, and received a prison sentence of eight years and three months, but avoided imprisonment by living in self-imposed exile in Tunisia.

The most recent charges related to a scandal over the building of Milan's underground railway in the 1980s. Craxi, from his exile in Tunisia, rejected the charges as false.

Craxi was born in Milan, and became a member of the chamber of deputies in 1968 and general secretary of the PSI in 1976. In 1983 he became Italy's first socialist prime minister, successfully leading a broad coalition until 1987. In February 1993 he was forced to resign the PSI leadership in the face of mounting allegations of corruption.