THE sister of a prominent judge, who was murdered by the Mafia to end his campaign against organised crime, is to stand as a candidate in next year’s elections for a governor in Sicily.

Rita Borsellino has been chosen as a candidate for the centre-left opposition against Salvatore Cuffaro, the incumbent, who is now standing trial on charges of aiding the Mafia.

A pharmacist by training, Signora Borsellino has not previously stood for high office.

Her brother Paolo Borsellino was murdered in Palermo in 1992, when his car was blown up outside his mother’s apartment. His death caused widespread revulsion and led to a crackdown on organised crime. The following year Salvatore “Toto” Riina, the acknowledged Mafia “godfather” in Sicily, was imprisoned for life.

However, the crackdown has lost impetus and the Mafia has retrenched under Bernardo Provenzano, Riina’s successor, abandoning high-profile mur- der in favour of lucrative drugs and arms-running, building contracts and money-laundering.

Signor Cuffaro is a member of the Union of Christian Democrats, part of the centre-right Government led by Silvio Berlusconi. In the last general election in 2001, Signor Berlusconi’s coalition won all 61 of Sicily’s parliamentary seats.

Signor Cuffaro, who is alleged to have aided the Mafia by revealing details of police investigations to suspects under surveillance, said: “Making Rita Borsellino a candidate is aimed directly at me. They want to play it as Mafia against anti-Mafia, with me, of course, as the Mafia.”

Signor Provenzano has been on the run for four decades. Anti-Mafia campaigners claim that the authorities have “not tried too hard” to find him.

Signora Borsellino said that she was fighting not just Signor Cuffaro but “a system. The aim of the Mafia is not so much to kill magistrates as to make money. Money buys power, and power buys money. It is not strange that the Mafia looks for support from those in power. What is strange is that they find it.”