The Hindu : A legal setback to Berlusconi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

International

International

A legal setback to Berlusconi

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, JAN. 14. The Italian Prime Minister and media tycoon, Silvio Berlusconi, suffered a severe setback when Italy's Constitutional Court struck down a law giving him and other top state officials immunity from criminal prosecution while in office.

The court said the law was unconstitutional because it singles out certain individuals for preferential treatment. Under Italy's constitution every citizen is equal before the law.

The ruling will in all likelihood re-open corruption trials against Mr. Berlusconi, dropped after the law granting immunity to Italy's top five public officials was hastily passed by Parliament where his governing coalition has a crushing majority. The law was whisked through Parliament last June after Mr. Berlusconi made initial appearances in a trial where he was charged with bribing a judge to influence the sale of Italy's public sector food giant the SME in the 1980s, long before he became the Prime Minister.

The outcome of the trial is likely to further poison relations between Italy's richest man and the country's magistrates. He has always proclaimed his innocence saying the cases against him were cooked up by left-wing magistrates out to destroy him politically and financially.

Last year, Milan magistrates handed down two prison sentences against Cesare Previti, one of Mr. Berlusconi's closest political associates and former personal lawyer. Mr. Berlusconi himself has evaded being tried through a series of manoeuvres using a statute of limitations governing certain offences.

This is the latest in a series of reversals the flamboyant and often abrasive Italian leader has suffered. The President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, recently refused to sign legislation on Italy's media sector that would have allowed Mr. Berlusconi to own more than two television channels. Mr. Berlusconi controls about 90 per cent of Italian television, either directly through his family's ownership of three commercial channels or indirectly through his supporters on the politically appointed board of state broadcaster RAI. His fortune is estimated at $13 billions (11.4 billion euros), making him Europe's third richest individual, and Italy's richest.

Mr. Berlusconi has alleged that the Milan trial, which started in March 2000 and had notched up 110 court hearings before it was suspended, is part of a witch-hunt by left-wing magistrates. Mr. Berlusconi is accused of bribing judges in 1985 to block the takeover of the semi-public firm SME by a competitor to his Fininvest holding company. The Berlusconi business empire is managed by the Fininvest holding company, which now oversees a vast range of interests including three private television channels, the Mondadori publishing house, an advertising company, a bank and a football team — the European Champions League winners AC Milan.

Mr. Berlusconi officially renounced all responsibility for his business empire in 1994, when he became Prime Minister for the first time — he held the position for seven months at the head of a right-wing coalition dominated by a political movement called Forza Italia (Go Italy!) of which he is leader, ideologue and banker. He has Italy's state-run television RAI in a deadly grip because he nominates who runs the channels.

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