11-12-2004, 01:30 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
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Berlusconi proved to have bribed judge but avoids prison
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe...p?story=591989
Quote:
Silvio Berlusconi, the Houdini of European politics, escaped jail last night on charges of bribing Roman judges. At the end of the Prime Minister's trial in Milan, judges cleared him of a specific charge for which prosecutors had demanded eight years.
The court ruled that a separate charge of paying a $430,000 (£224,000) bribe to a judge was proved, but he escaped conviction because too much time, more than the limit of seven and a half years, had elapsed since the charges were filed.
"He's got away by the skin of his teeth again," said Antonio di Pietro, a political opponent. Mr Berlusconi, who appeared only three times at the trial, was not in court to hear the verdict. But it was not the first time that the Prime Minister has avoided conviction thanks to the statute of limitations.
The messy verdict was far from being a full exculpation of Italy's wealthiest man and the first Italian prime minister to take office with criminal charges pending.
Oliviero Diliberto, a Communist leader, said: "The sentence of absolution for the crime of corruption, caused by the statute of limitations, means he's guilty. It would therefore be reasonable for him to resign. But I doubt Berlusconi sees it that way."
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