Italy Senate expels 3-time ex-Premier Berlusconi
A Milan appeals court on Saturday ruled that Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister with a lifetime of court battles under his belt, should be barred from holding political office for two years following a conviction for tax fraud.
The court was ordered by the Italian Supreme Court to determine the length of the political ban in connection with the media mogul’s tax fraud conviction and four-year jail term, after prosecutors conceded mistakes in the original five-year ban.
Berlusconi, 77, is already facing the loss of his Senate seat after losing his final appeal in the tax fraud case this summer, under a 2012 law stipulating that anyone convicted to more than two years in prison is forbidden from participating in politics for six years.
Following a decision by the Senate to vote whether to strip Berlusconi of this Senate seat following his tax fraud conviction, the leader of Forza Italia earlier this month made a desperate bid to bring down the government by threatening to yank his five Cabinet ministers out of government.
But in a rare swipe at Berlusconi’s authority, supporters aligned themselves with the forces of “stability” instead, voting to support the government of Premier Enrico Letta.
The flamboyant Italian politician and billionaire tycoon has grabbed headlines in the past not only for his brash political and business style, but for the adventures of his private life as well.
In June, an Italian court declared Berlusconi guilty both of paying for sex with an underage prostitute – a girl of Moroccan decent nicknamed Ruby Heartstealer – and abusing his office to cover up the relationship.
Berlusconi, who went far at introducing the term “bunga bunga” into the modern vernacular, was sentenced to seven years for his indiscretion. Yet it is highly unlikely the media mogul and political powerhouse will be forced to trade in his playboy lifestyle for the rigid routine of prison life due to an Italian appeals process that promises to provide sensational fodder for Italian newspapers for many years to come.
Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi stands inside the new headquarters of his re-launched original political party, Forza Italia (Go Italy), in downtown Rome September 19, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Massimo Percossi/Pool
ROME |
ROME (Reuters) – Italian President Giorgio Napolitano canceled his attendance at a conference on Thursday because of what he called disturbing political developments after center-right supporters of Silvio Berlusconi threatened to walk out of parliament.
Italy has lurched closer to a crisis since Berlusconi, a partner in Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s coalition government, was sentenced last month to four years in prison, commuted to a year under house arrest or in community service, for tax fraud.
Late on Wednesday, Berlusconi’s allies made their latest threat to bring down the government, saying they would resign if a special Senate committee meeting on October 4 voted to strip the 76-year-old media tycoon of his seat in the upper house.
Letta has said that Italy needs political stability while it struggles to emerge from more than two years of recession, rein in a 2-trillion-euro ($ 2.7-trillion) public debt, and bring its budget deficit under control.
As the latest bout of political brinkmanship preoccupied Rome, rumors swirled that Italy faced a renewed downgrade of its government debt, sending the Milan bourse lower and pushing up borrowing costs on benchmark 10-year bonds.
Napolitano, who had been due to attend a conference on post-war premier Alcide De Gaspari, sent a message to organizers excusing himself and saying that “a sudden political development that is institutionally disturbing” required his attention.
How serious a threat the latest move presents is difficult to assess given a series of contradictory signals from Berlusconi’s allies in parliament, who are divided between a faction of hardliners and more conciliatory doves.
On Thursday, Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi, a member of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) party, said the center-right had no joint commitment to stand down. “The resignation of the parliamentarians is a decision which will depend on the conscience of each individual,” he told RAI state radio.
“IF THIS MESS CONTINUES, I COULD RESIGN”
But Letta’s center-left Democratic Party (PD) said the threats could undermine the government as it grapples with problems ranging from strained public finances to the fate of big Italian firms including Telecom Italia and national carrier Alitalia, both embroiled in complex takeovers.
“Unfortunately, this back and forth with threats weakens an equilibrium which is already very delicate,” Luigi Zanda, Senate floor leader of the PD, told the daily Corriere della Sera.
PD leader Guglielmo Epifani accused the center-right of “blackmail” but said his party would not change its approach and would vote to strip Berlusconi of his seat.
Berlusconi’s political fate has hung in the balance since the tax fraud conviction opened the way to his expulsion from parliament under legislation passed last year that bans politicians with criminal convictions from holding seats.
He says the sentence, which is likely to remove his parliamentary immunity from arrest over other cases, is unjust and accuses what he calls left-wing magistrates of plotting to drive him out of politics.
Pressure on the coalition from Forza Italia rose hours after Letta sought to reassure international investors in New York that Italy was a stable and reliable partner.
Without citing its sources, the Corriere della Sera daily said that Letta had informed Angelino Alfano, the deputy prime minister and party secretary of Forza Italia: “Angelino, if this mess keeps up, I could resign from here.”
Napolitano, who would have to decide whether to call new elections or seek to build a new coalition if the center-right bows out of the government, has said he does not want a vote.
But the constant tension within the coalition has hobbled reform efforts and wasted weeks in wrangling over issues including tax cuts and Berlusconi’s political future.
Financial markets have shown none of the panic seen during previous government crises in 2012 or at the height of the euro zone debt crisis in 2011. But borrowing costs have ticked up during the latest bout of uncertainty. On Thursday, yields on Italy’s 10-year bonds rose by six basis points.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi looks on during a news conference at Chigi Palace in Rome August 4, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Tony Gentile
ROME |
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s center left will not accept any “blackmail” from its center-right coalition partner, its leader said on Monday, after Silvio Berlusconi’s party threatened to bring down the government if he is ejected from parliament.
Relations between Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party and Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s Democratic Party (PD) are at breaking point ahead of a Senate vote due by October on whether to expel the media mogul over his tax fraud conviction.
Following a party summit over the weekend at Berlusconi’s Milan villa, members of the PDL said his removal from parliament was “unthinkable” and openly threatened to bring down the government if their PD coalition partners vote to evict him.
“The PD rejects any blackmail or ultimatum from the PDL,” PD secretary Guglielmo Epifani told the daily newspaper la Repubblica on Monday, reaffirming that his party would vote in favor of Berlusconi’s removal from parliament.
“Berlusconi needs to take note of what led to his conviction, and he has to explain why he would bring down the government at a time of crisis.”
He warned that if the government collapsed just as the euro zone’s third-largest economy was showing the first signs of recovery after a two-year recession, there would be “enormous costs” for society and renewed tremors in financial markets.
Letta is trying to push on with reforms to spur growth and fight record levels of unemployment despite deep divisions in his coalition, which was cobbled together after inconclusive elections in February.
Bond markets have calmed and Italian borrowing costs have declined well below levels that triggered concern during the height of euro zone turmoil in 2011, when Berlusconi resigned as premier to make way for a technocrat government.
However, on Monday the difference in yield between Italian 10-year bonds and their German counterparts widened slightly as investors worried about a potential government collapse.
“It doesn’t look like the politicians will find a compromise to get out of this crisis, which puts all measures that need to be taken to spur the economy on ice,” said a Milan trader.
“There is the risk that this could hit our economic recovery at a time when the country has shown some signs of a pick-up,” he said.
Letta said on Sunday it would be “madness” to bring down his government at such a sensitive time, but said he was confident the administration could resolve its problems.
The coalition partners are also arguing over an unpopular housing tax reform which they are due to agree on Wednesday. The PDL has threatened to bring down the government if the reform is not abolished, but center-left officials say there are not enough alternative resources to scrap it completely.
The cabinet is also due to meet later on Monday to agree on measures to cut public administration spending.
(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
“We are living in a country… that doesn’t know how to be just”
Italy’s former PM Silvio Berlusconi has broadcast an angry video message after his prison sentence for tax fraud was upheld by the country’s highest court.
Berlusconi said he was the innocent victim of “an incredible series of accusations and trials that had nothing to do with reality”.
The court also ordered a further judicial review on whether he should be banned from holding public office.
Berlusconi, 76, is unlikely to go to jail because of his age.
He is expected to serve house arrest or carry out community service.
‘Judicial harassment’
The ruling by Rome’s Court of Cassation, against which he cannot appeal, came after a three-day hearing. Berlusconi was not in court.
In an emotional nine-minute video, Berlusconi denounced the decision as “based on nothing, and which deprives me of my freedom and political rights”.
“No-one can understand the veritable violence which has been reserved for me through a series of charges and trials that had no basis in reality,” he said.
He described the more that 50 court cases he has faced as “genuine judicial harassment that is unmatched in the civilised world”.
“In exchange for the commitments I have made over almost 20 years in favour of my country and coming almost at the end of my public life, I have been rewarded with accusations and a verdict that is founded on absolutely nothing, that takes away my personal freedom and my political rights.”
He criticised the country’s judicial record, saying: “Is this the Italy that we want? Is this the Italy that we love? Absolutely not.”
It is the billionaire businessman’s first definitive conviction after decades of criminal prosecutions.
The case concerns deals that his firm Mediaset made to purchase TV rights to US films.
The courtroom dramas of Silvio Berlusconi are part of the backdrop to Italian life. The nation has watched around two dozen trials unfold over nearly 20 years.
But until now they have never seen Mr Berlusconi definitively convicted. And there can be no appeal.
This damning judgement will forever be part of his record – and he will surely see this as one of the darkest moments in his extraordinary political career.
But it could have been even worse: the judges did not uphold the order that would have barred Mr Berlusconi from public office. That will be re-examined by a lower court.
So Mr Berlusconi is certainly down, but not entirely out. He has been diminished and humiliated, but even now it might be a mistake to bet against him.
The former prime minister was sentenced to four years in prison at the conclusion of the trial in October last year, though this was automatically reduced to a year under a 2006 pardon law.
‘Stay calm’
The court at the time heard that he and other executives had bought TV rights at inflated prices to avoid paying taxes.
He was labelled the “author of a whole system of tax fraud”.
The review of the lower court’s five year ban on holding public office means Berlusconi can remain as a senator and as leader of his centre-right People of Freedom Party (PDL) for now.
The BBC’s Alan Johnston in Rome says the former prime minister will be relieved that judges ordered a review of the political ban.
Berlusconi’s political grouping forms part of Italy’s coalition government. Prime Minister Enrico Letta needs both the PDL and his own centre-left Democratic Party to govern.
In a statement after the court ruling, Mr Letta urged “a climate of serenity” for the good of the country.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano also urged the country to stay calm.
“The country needs to rediscover serenity and cohesion on vitally important institutional matters which have for too long seen it divided and unable to enact reforms,” he said.
Appeals pending
A former minister and ally of Berlusconi, Nitto Palma, told Reuters on leaving a PDL meeting that there was a lot of bitterness about the verdict.
However the sentence would not affect the Letta government, he said.
Berlusconi’s legal team said there were “solid reasons” why Berlusconi should have been acquitted, and it would “evaluate and pursue any useful initiative, also in Europe, to make sure that this unjust sentence is radically reformed”.
Anti-establishment politician Beppe Grillo welcomed the court ruling, comparing the sentence to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In a statement on his blog, Mr Grillo said Berlusconi had “polluted, corrupted and paralysed Italian politics for 21 years”.
The three-time prime minister and senator has faced a string of trials since leaving office in November 2011.
Appeals are pending in other cases in which he was convicted of having paid for sex with an under-age prostitute, and arranging for a police wiretap to be leaked and published in a newspaper.
Two other alleged tax evasion cases, one of them involving British lawyer David Mills, expired under the statute of limitations.
MILAN |
MILAN (Reuters) – The nightclub dancer at the center of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” sex trial told a court on Friday that guests at the media tycoon’s parties dressed as nuns, nurses and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name “Ruby the Heartstealer”, spoke as a witness in a trial at which talent scout Lele Mora, television anchor Emilio Fede and former showgirl and regional councilor Nicole Minetti are accused of inducing and aiding prostitution.
Berlusconi is being tried separately for paying for sex with El Mahroug when she was a minor and then abusing office by having her freed from police custody after her arrest for theft.
Her appearance is nevertheless an embarrassment for the 76-year-old billionaire, serving as a reminder of the legal threats the leader of the center-right and key partner in the governing coalition faces.
A verdict in the sex trial is expected in June, and a conviction for tax fraud is moving to a final appeal. Berlusconi says he has never paid for sex, denies any wrongdoing and says judges are politically motivated against him.
El Mahroug failed to appear as a witness at Berlusconi’s trial in December because she was on holiday in Mexico. In her Friday testimony, she challenged Berlusconi’s assertion that events at his villa were elegant dinner parties.
DRESSING AS OBAMA
Glamour model Marysthelle Polanco, one of 14 women who became notorious after they were discovered to be housed at a Milan address at Berlusconi’s expense, dressed up as Obama and Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho, El Mahroug said.
On one occasion Minetti, Berlusconi’s former dental hygienist who graduated to a career in showbusiness and politics, “dressed up as a nun … and as she danced, she took off her clothes and was left in her underwear,” El Mahroug told the court.
Wearing a large grey scarf and her hair tied back in a sleek ponytail, she entered the Milan courtroom flanked by police, walking quickly past waiting journalists. It was the first time she has testified about the parties.
El Mahroug said she received envelopes containing thousands of euros in cash from the then-prime minister and spent the night at the villa on one occasion, after which she and several other women who had slept there shared breakfast with him.
She denied ever having sexual relations with Berlusconi, and said she did not see him engaged in physical contact with other women at the parties, repeating statements she has made to the media in the past.
The Moroccan-born El Mahroug was 17 when she attended the parties at Berlusconi’s villa outside Milan. She said she lied about her age and that she had told guests that she was a relative of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.
Berlusconi’s defense against the abuse of office charge is that he acted under the belief that El Mahroug was related to Mubarak, and that he needed to free her from police custody to prevent a diplomatic upset.
(Reporting by Sara Rossi, writing by Naomi O’Leary; editing by Mike Collett-White)
