Right accused of stalling on Dell’Utri

Date: 14/02/02

By Martin Banks

RIGHT-wing members of a parliamentary committee have been accused of using delaying tactics to protect controversial Italian MEP Marcello Dell'Utri from criminal prosecution.

The charge follows a decision by the legal affairs committee to ask for more information from Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who wants the deputy's immunity from prosecution lifted so he can face tax charges in Spain.

The move has incensed the Party of European Socialists (PES), the second largest in Parliament, which says any further delay in lifting 61-year-old Dell'Utri's immunity is 'totally unacceptable'.

Group leaders say it is 'significant' that the committee's new chairman is another Italian, Giuseppe Gargani, who, like Dell'Utri, is a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.

Spanish MEP Manuel Medina, PES group coordinator and responsible for legal affairs, said: 'It is totally unacceptable to ask for more information as all the facts can be obtained from the large amount of documentation sent previously by Mr Garzon to the committee.

'The crimes allegedly committed by Dell'Utri are concrete enough: defrauding the [Spanish] finance ministry and the falsification of public and private documents.'

The PES attack will add more fuel to a fire first ignited a year ago when Spain asked the assembly to rescind Berlusconi's right to immunity as an MEP.

Berlusconi, a close friend of Dell'Utri, faced charges relating to alleged tax fraud at Tele 5, a Spanish television station he part-owned. As he was forced to resign as an MEP following his election as Italian prime minister last May, it is unclear whether the request for his prosecution is still admissible.

But Garzon - the high court judge who stepped into the international limelight when he sought, unsuccessfully, to try former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet - still wants Dell'Utri's immunity lifted.

Medina said: 'The request for additional documentation can only be explained by the desire of the Right on the legal affairs committee to delay proceedings for the lifting of Dell'Utri's immunity.'

He described Dell'Utri as 'a partner and confidant of Berlusconi' and claimed the MEP had also benefited from delaying tactics in the past when French EPP member Nicole Fontaine held the presidency of the European Parliament.

He added: 'It is significant that since 17 January the chairman of the legal affairs committee is Giuseppe Gargani, a member of Forza Italia. This may explain the conservative vote to delay proceedings.'

The web of intrigue does not stop there. Parliamentary insiders allege that Gargani won the chairmanship of the committee after the personal intervention of the Italian premier.

They say Berlusconi discussed his nomination with Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, who is said to have urged his MEPs to back Gargani on condition that the Italians supported Spanish MEP Ana Palacio's nomination to chair the citizens' rights, justice and home affairs committee.

Dell'Utri, an MEP for three years, told European Voice that it was 'ridiculous' to link his case with the Gargani appointment. 'He is only one member of the committee,' he said, adding: 'I want the legal proceedings in Spain to start as soon as possible. I have nothing to fear and want to clear my name.'

Dell'Utri, who is also a senator in the Italian parliament, last week came under fire for his attendance record at the Parliament's plenary sessions.

A survey revealed he had the worst record of the assembly's 626 MEPs, attending just 14.2 of plenary sessions last year - the equivalent of just two and a half days. He blamed his poor record on being the 'object of particular interest' to the judiciary in Italy where he said he regularly had to face legal proceedings as an MEP.

Right-wing members of the European Parliament's legal affairs committee have been accused of using delaying tactics to protect controversial Italian MEP Marcello Dell'Utri from criminal prosecution.