The Italian judge who found former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti guilty of ordering a Mafia murder has received a death threat.

Lino Verrina is chairman of the Perugia appeals court which imposed a 24-year jail sentence on Mr Andreotti on Sunday.

It's not the first time that I have had to deal with death threats - then, as now, I remained calm

Lino Verrina

Mr Andreotti, a giant in Italian post-war politics, had been accused of asking the Mafia to murder an investigative journalist who was thought to have damaging information about him.

Mr Verrina has said he is now under 24-hour police protection, after an anonymous caller rang the courthouse to warn him he would be killed.

Falcone threat

The caller reportedly said: "We shall make you end up like Falcone" - a reference to top anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, who was murdered in a huge bomb attack in 1992.

A second judge at the court, Maurizio Muscato, is also reported to be under protection.

Mr Verrina has insisted the threat will not force him to change his daily exercise routine.

"It's not the first time that I have had to deal with death threats," the veteran judge told the daily Corriere della Sera.

Pecorelli was hit by four bullets

"Then, as now, I remained calm," he said, adding "I will continue to live as before, going to the gym and jogging."

Police have also begun an inquiry into the threat.

Mr Andreotti, who denies his guilt, is expected to appeal against his conviction.

The court found him guilty of complicity in the murder of journalist Mino Pecorelli, hit by four bullets in Rome in 1979.

A lower court cleared Mr Andreotti of involvement three years ago.

Sunday's guilty verdict was greeted with a wave of condemnation of Italian political leaders and media.

The Perugia appeals court cleared two men of carrying out the shooting.

One other man was found guilty - Gaetano Badalamenti, who is already serving a sentence in the US for Mafia-related drugs offences.