Dell’Utri ready to waive immunity to face trial

Date: 21/02/02

By Martin Banks

THE controversial Italian MEP Marcello Dell'Utri is set to ask for his Parliamentary immunity from prosecution to be waived so he can face tax evasion charges in Spain, it has emerged.

The surprise development comes as a new report calls for a major shake-up in the way waiver requests are handled. Under the proposed reform, MEPs would have the final say on such applications rather than the assembly's president, as is the case now.

Dell'Utri, a member of the Forza Italia party, is currently standing trial in Palermo, Sicily, on charges of aiding and abetting the Mafia.

Sources close to him say he is ready to waive his Parliamentary privileges 'to clear his name' over an unrelated tax case in Spain involving Publiespana, the Madrid-based advertising company which he founded.

'He wants people to know that he has absolutely nothing to hide over this matter,' said the source.

Publiespana is a subsidiary of Tele 5, the Spanish television station formerly part-owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close friend of Dell'Utri.

Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has asked for 61-year-old Dell'Utri's immunity to be lifted so that he can launch proceedings. However, members of the committee on legal affairs and internal market, chaired by Forza Italia member Giuseppe Gargani, have asked for more information before deciding whether to approve the request.

News that Dell'Utri may waive his immunity took members of the committee by surprise. Spanish Socialist Manuel Medina said: 'I would naturally be delighted if Mr Dell'Utri comes before the committee and asks for his immunity to be waived.'

Deputy chairman Bill Miller, a UK Socialist, added: 'I'd welcome it because it's about time Dell'Utri stopped hiding behind his immunity.'

Dell'Utri, who also sits as a senator in the Italian parliament, has been dogged by controversy since becoming an MEP three years ago. His trial in Palermo - the traditional base of the Mafia - is expected to last several weeks.

The case partly concerns his contact with Vittorio Mangano, whom he is alleged to have hired to look after horses on Berlusconi's Arcore estate near Milan in the early 1970s.

The prosecution claims that Dell'Utri knew Mangano was linked to the Mafia and chose him because Berlusconi feared that he and members of his family were a target for kidnappers. Mangano, who is now dead, was later convicted of Mafia association and drug trafficking.

Meanwhile, UK Liberal Andrew Duff yesterday called for a radical reform of the rules on how immunity requests are considered, arguing that the Parliament president's discretion be scrapped and all requests dealt with by the legal affairs committee.

His long-awaited report on the issue comes in the wake of the controversial decision last year by former Parliament President Nicole Fontaine to reject a Spanish request for Berlusconi's immunity to be lifted while he was still an MEP.

Duff says immunity should not be seen as 'insurance cover' for criminal behaviour by MEPs, adding that it should only be granted to protect members' freedom of expression

• The European Parliament's judicial affairs committee voted on Tuesday to reject a French demand to lift immunity for two MEPs wanted in connection with an illegal arms-sales investigation.

Former French interior minister Charles Pasqua and Jean-Charles Marchiani are being probed for their alleged role in a suspect weapons deal to Angola in the early 1990s. Both men deny any wrongdoing.

The full Parliament is expected to vote on the matter next month.

The controversial Italian MEP Marcello Dell'Utri is set to ask for his Parliamentary immunity from prosecution to be waived so he can face tax evasion charges in Spain.