Italy’s prime minister and the law. Final fruits of office?

Date: 21/01/06

Parliament once again helps Silvio Berlusconi out of his legal troubles

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, Italy's prime minister, is ending his current term of office as he began it in the summer of 2001: with an assault on the judicial system. In one of its last acts before the election in April, the Italian parliament has passed a bill sponsored by Gaetano Pecorella, Mr Berlusconi's lawyer, who is also a deputy for his political party, Forza Italia. In July 2001 Mr Pecorella, who chairs the lower house's justice committee, also sponsored a law to downgrade the crime of false accounting, for which the prime minister was then on trial. That law shortened the statute of limitations after which charges are time-barred, a provision that directly benefited Mr Berlusconi.

The new bill would abolish the prosecution's right to appeal against acquittals by the court of first instance. By chance, a court in Milan is due to begin hearing just such an appeal, of a case in which Mr Berlusconi was acquitted on four charges of bribing judges. On one charge, the acquittal came because the crime was time-barred after extenuating circumstances had been granted; on two others, it came for lack of sufficient proof; on the fourth, it was because he had not committed the offence. But the prosecution appealed against all these verdicts, which were delivered in December 2004.

Cesare Previti, a Forza Italia senator and business colleague of Mr Berlusconi, might also benefit from the new bill. He has been found guilty in two cases of judicial corruption and faces a prison sentence should the verdicts be upheld. One of the cases, involving a company owned by Mr Berlusconi, was due to be decided by the supreme court this week, but the hearing was cancelled because of a lawyers' strike. Under the new bill, Mr Previti might be able to submit direct evidence to the supreme court, whose role is currently limited to ruling on points of law.

Magistrates are appalled by the new bill. "Its impact will be devastating," comments Armando Spataro, a senior anti-terrorism prosecutor in Milan and a leader of the national magistrates' association. The bill could trigger a huge increase in the supreme court's workload, as defendants playing for time and hoping to benefit from the statute of limitations ask for the evidence to be reviewed yet again.

Constitutional lawyers have suggested two reasons why Italy's president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, may refuse to sign the new bill, however. They say that it runs contrary to the requirements that there should be equality between parties in trials and that trials should be of a reasonable duration. If Mr Ciampi sends the bill back to parliament, there may not be enough time left for it to be resubmitted before April's election.

By coincidence, Mr Berlusconi went to see investigating magistrates in Rome on the same day that parliament approved Mr Pecorella's law. Yet this did not herald a new, more cordial relationship with the magistracy. Rather, the prime minister claimed to have information relating to the role of opposition leaders in a bank takeover that the magistrates were investigating. He later admitted that what he knew had no judicial relevance. Far from giving the magistrates a hand, the prime minister was, it seems, merely electioneering.

The Italian Parliament has again legislated to help Silvio Berlusconi out of his legal troubles.