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Prosecutors Seek Five-Year Jail Term for former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi

By News Wires (text)

France 24, February 16, 2012, REUTERS -

 

Italian prosecutors asked a Milan court on Wednesday to sentence Silvio Berlusconi to five years in prison on charges of paying British lawyer David Mills a $600,000 bribe to lie about the former prime minister's business interests.

But even if the media tycoon is found guilty, he is not likely to go to jail because the case, which dates to 1997, will be overtaken in a few months by the statute of limitations.

The scandal-plagued Berlusconi, who was forced out of power in November as Italy faced a perilous debt crisis, faces three other trials on charges including tax fraud and paying for sex with an underage nightclub dancer.

Milan prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale told the court on Wednesday that the bribery charge would be overtaken by the statute of limitations between early May and mid-July.

Mills, husband of former British cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, has already had a 4-1/2-year jail sentence for taking the bribe quashed by the statute.

Mills told the trial in December that he lied when he told British tax authorities that he had received the $600,000 payment from a Berlusconi associate, and said the former prime minister had nothing to do with the case.

He said he was deeply ashamed for implicating him.

Prosecutors allege that Berlusconi paid Mills to lie under oath in separate court cases. Berlusconi, 75, denies all charges against him, saying he is being hounded by politically motivated left-wing magistrates.

Berlusconi's lawyers say the charges in the Mills case have already expired and that the three-judge panel is biased against their client.

They have asked for other judges to take over the case. A separate court is expected to decide on this request on Feb. 18.

Berlusconi, already on trial for separate charges of tax fraud and in the "Rubygate" sex scandal, will face a new case on March 15 on charges of revealing confidential information related to a 2005 banking scandal.

The Mills trial is due to continue on Feb. 25. A verdict could come in the spring.

Berlusconi's rule comes to an end

By News Wires (text)

France 24,  13/11/2011

AFP -

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi quit power on Saturday to loud cheering from a crowd of thousands in Rome after a wave of market panic that has shaken the eurozone brought his rule to an end.

Berlusconi formally submitted his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano, who announced he will now hold consultations on the formation of a new transition government as Italy rushes to fill the political vacuum.

"I am deeply embittered," 75-year-old Berlusconi, who has been in power for 10 of the past 17 years, told reporters after his waving following his last cabinet meeting was greeted by shouts of "Buffoon!" and "Go Home!"

The billionaire tycoon resigned following parliamentary approval of a package of economic reforms that he had promised the European Union.

"We hope today marks the beginning of a new spring in Italy," Massimo Donadi, a lawmaker from the opposition Italy of Values party.

Dario Franceschini of the main opposition Democratic Party said: "Today the curtain falls on a long and painful phase of Italian political history.

"The country wants to turn the page and start again," he added.

In the streets of central Rome, crowds gathered chanting "Resign! Resign!" and holding up placards reading: "Bye Bye Silvio!". Motorbikes streamed past waving Italian flags and an impromptu choir sang: "Hallelujah!"

The prime minister waved to the crowd after his last cabinet meeting despite the jeering. There were also small groups of supporters who shouted "Silvio! Silvio!" and said they were bereft that their beloved leader was leaving.

The 68-year-old economist Monti has a formidable reputation as the former top trust-busting bureaucrat in Brussels who took on US corporate giants Microsoft and General Electric, but he has no experience in political office.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, the former governor of the Bank of Italy who took over in Frankfurt just this month, met with Monti in Rome on Saturday in what was interpreted as an implicit endorsement.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde also added her voice to calls from US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and others for Italy to form a new government instead of declaring early elections.

PROFILE: MARIO MONTI

itALY 'Super Mario': the presumed successor to Silvio Berlusconi

Berlusconi's hand was forced after a parliamentary revolt on Tuesday left his centre-right coalition in a minority on a procedural vote.

But he refused to step down until lawmakers had approved a set of reforms.

The measures include state asset sell-offs, reforms to boost competition in the labour market and moves to ease notoriously heavy bureacracy for firms.

Monti has received endorsements from across the political spectrum and there were reports on Saturday that Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party would also support him despite the premier previously calling for early elections.

Napolitano would be forced to dissolve parliament and call early elections if there is no majority behind a transition government -- a prospect that had spooked the financial markets in recent days.

Under the current timetable, the next elections are only due in 2013.

There was little grief among ordinary Italians at the political demise of Berlusconi, with latest polls giving the media tycoon an approval rating of just 22 percent following a wave of sex scandals and legal troubles.

Many in the international community also want to see the back of him.

The latest cover of The Economist news weekly, which has had a long feud with Berlusconi since declaring him "unfit to lead Italy" in 2001, carried a photo of the tycoon preening himself with the headline: "That's all, folks."

Following Berlusconi's resignation announcement on Tuesday, Italy's long-term borrowing costs rose above 7.0 percent -- a dangerous level that could make the country's debt unsustainable within months.

Reports of Monti's impending nomination helped ease the jitters.

But the toxic mix of a 1.9 trillion euro ($2.6 trillion) debt, an extremely low growth rate and high borrowing costs has raised concerns that the eurozone's third largest economy may be forced to seek a bailout.

The IMF and the European Financial Stability Facility have both reportedly offered financial help. Economists warn that, unlike fellow eurozone members Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Italy may be "too big to bail".

Berlusconi reluctantly agreed to special EU-IMF monitoring of Italy's accounts at a G20 summit last week, prompting his opponents to carp that the country is now effectively "under external administration".