ROME - Silvio Berlusconi said he was “the victim of an unequalled judicial attack”. Italy’s supreme Court of Cassation up-held a tax-fraud conviction making a four-year prison sentence definitive. This makes him ineligible to run in future elections.
A good numbers of supporters and deputies of his party, People of Freedom (PdL), went immediately after the sentence to express him solidarity. Then, in front of hundreds of them, visibly moved, he rejected the verdict: “I am innocent. I’ve never made false invoices. I never called my company while I was Prime Minister because it would have raised questions about conflict of interest. I don’t give up!”.
It is the first time Berlusconi has received a definitive conviction after many sentences that declared his absolution or were prescribed.
Since the media magnate embarked on a political career two decades ago, he was implicated in over two dozen of legal proceedings. However, of the four years, three of the sentence are not effective because of the 2006 amnesty. Moreover, because Berlusconi is over 70, he will have to discount the remaining year in house arrest or he will be given social works.
The supreme court also suspended the five-year ban on Berlusconi holding public office, committed by the previous grade of judgement, by sending this part of the punishment back to the Milan appeals court for review. State prosecutors have already requested to reduce it to three years. The decision was anno-unced after six hours consultations over the case.
The three-time Italian premier has been found guilty of masterminding a system of inflated film-rights purchases and dodge taxes on around 7 million euros in 2002 and 2003 through Mediaset, his tv empire, and foreign companies.
In a video message just after the sentence he said it was “an irresponsible part of the judiciary system that had permanently conditioned Italy’s political life”.
Now, while his party is planning a meeting with the President of the Republic Napolitano to ask the grace for their leader and somebody even evokes civil war (labelled as something “irresponsible” by Napolitano), premier Letta said that it would be a “crime” if his left-right government (that took power in April to end two months of political deadlock after February’s inconclusive political election but is fragile and needs the support of Berlusconi’s party to go on) collapsed after the supreme court sentence.
“The stability of the government is fundamental, including at the international level, as it’s one of the main factors to attract foreign investment” said Letta and political instability is the last thing Italy needs in this period of deep crisis and unemployment.
The spread, a key indicator of investor confidence, dropped to 263 points, the lowest level since early June, after the sentence.
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