Will Silvio Berlusconi be found guilty?

IF THERE is one thing that defendants in court cases normally want it is speedy justice. But, as has been apparent for many years, Silvio Berlusconi (pictured) is no normal defendant.

On July 9th Italy’s highest appeals court, the court of cassation, admitted his second and final appeal against a conviction for tax fraud. Though less titillating than his trial on vice charges, this case is far more significant politically.

There is now a real

possibility that the leader of Italy’s main conservative party, the People of Freedom (PdL), will be found guilty. A definitive conviction by the supreme court would destroy his argument that he has a clean penal record, despite numerous narrow escapes, and besmirch forever his place in the history books.

Mr Berlusconi’s lawyers (and everyone else) had expected that in the usual, sleepy way of Italian justice, his case would find itself at the top of a very long list of cases sometime around the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. Instead, the hearing was set down for July 30th.

His lawyers and supporters were outraged. “Nothing like this has ever been seen,” said Maurizio Lupi, one of Mr Berlusconi’s ministers. The PdL’s leaders in parliament demanded a three-day suspension of the legislature. After that was rejected by its coalition partner, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), his representatives announced that they would boycott a meeting with the PD and the third party in the coalition scheduled for July 10th.

Mr Letta’s left-right coalition has never looked more endangered. The sudden acceleration came just hours after the publication of an article in Corriere della Sera pointing out that, if the case went ahead at the normal pace, Mr Berlusconi would very likely leap free once again. A law introduced by one of his own governments in 2005 shortened the period in which several offences were timed out by a statute of limitations. Unsurprisingly, they included some of the offences of which the then prime minister was himself accused. Mr Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud on two counts, relating to returns filed by his TV company, Mediaset, for the tax years 2002 and 2003. But the count relating to the first of those years would be nullified by the effects of the 2005 law at some point between August 31st and September 30th. That could have meant that the court of cassation would have to order the appeal to be reheard, if only to recalculate the sentence to take into account the lesser amount of tax defrauded. In Italy, that could easily take a year, by the end of which the other charge might also have timed out.

Even if this does not happen, it is unlikely that the 76-year-old former prime minister will ever see the inside of a cell: courts in Italy seldom jail anyone of his age. But another penalty inflicted by the lower courts threatens to do him real political harm. If the court of cassation upholds Mr Berlusconi’s guilty verdict, then it is also likely to endorse a five-year ban on his holding public office.

For years, Mr Berlusconi has protested that he is the victim of a campaign orchestrated by left-wing prosecutors and judges: that there was one set of rules for him and another for everyone else. This time, his claims look superficially persuasive. Mr Lupi remarked that “millions of Italians wait years for justice” but for Silvio Berlusconi the court of cassation gets convened in record time. But as Corriere della Sera noted today, the supreme court’s decision has a sound basis in law: a 1969 act that enjoins judges to speed up cases that could lapse while their colleagues are at the beach.

Πηγη: Economist