Berlusconi points finger at Prodi in bribery trial (BIG EU SCANDAL ALERT)

The Times ^ | May 6, 2003 | Richard Owen

[MadIvan]

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, the Italian Prime Minister and business and media tycoon, made an extraordinary courtroom appearance yesterday to contest corruption charges and attempted to turn the tables by implicating Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission.

In dramatic testimony in Milan, the first time that a serving Italian Prime Minister has made a statement at his own trial, Signor Berlusconi said that if there was a guilty party in the case it was Signor Prodi.

Many expect Signor Prodi, a former centre-left Prime Minister, to return from Brussels in two years’ time to lead the Left in the next general election. He is widely seen as the only politician with the stature to unseat the centre-right Government of Signor Berlusconi, who was elected with a convincing majority two years ago this month after seven years in the political wilderness.

The corruption trial, which stems from the privatisation of a state-owned food conglomerate in the 1980s, is expected to reach a verdict just as Italy takes over the six-month presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in July. Signor Berlusconi hopes to use his time in the EU chair to heal post-Iraq divisions in Europe and preside over a “second Treaty of Rome” enshrining the new EU constitution.

Some leaders of the Centre Right have suggested the trial should be “suspended” until the end of the year. The Italian premier, who has repeatedly accused Italy’s “left-wing” magistrates of persecuting him, has hinted that if convicted he will call an early election, which would in effect become a referendum on his battle with a “biased” judiciary.

He has also vowed to reintroduce parliamentary immunity from prosecution, which was abolished in 1993 as part of the “clean hands” anti-corruption drive by Milan magistrates that brought down the once mighty Christian Democrats and led Bettino Craxi, a former Prime Minister, to flee to Tunisia to escape a jail sentence.

Signor Berlusconi, who until now has kept a low profile in the case, addressed the packed courtroom for more than an hour. Speaking without notes, with the magistrates he has repeatedly attacked as “reds” sitting a few feet away, he vehemently denied charges that he was involved in the bribery of judges to influence the sale of the food and catering giant SME in 1985.

Signor Berlusconi recalled that he and his co-bidders at the time had intervened to challenge the planned sale of SME at an alleged “below market price” to Carlo De Benedetti, an industralist. They had done so at the behest of Signor Craxi, who, as Prime Minister, had “begged” him to bid to prevent the “plundering” of a state-owned asset. The SME sale collapsed and eventually it was split up and sold off piecemeal.

Signor Berlusconi reminded the court that the sale of SME had been conducted by Signor Prodi, at that time chairman of IRI, the state holding company. He said that his defence lawyers were depositing documents showing that Signor Prodi had knowingly undervalued SME.

Signor Prodi, who was dogged by corruption allegations dating from the 1980s when he became Commission President, said that he was not worried by the latest allegations. “This is not my trial,” he said.

Last week Signor Berlusconi attacked the judiciary when Cesare Previti, his former lawyer and Defence Minister and a co-defendant in the SME case, was sentenced in a separate corruption trial to 11 years in jail. The Prime Minister was indirectly rebuked, however, by President Ciampi, who said that all politicians had to abide by sentences passed.

The row is reminiscent of Signor Berlusconi’s last Government, in 1994, when he was served with a writ for corruption while hosting a summit of what was then the G7 at Naples. This contributed to the collapse of his coalition after only nine months in office.

Signor Berlusconi is accused by the Left of pushing through laws that benefit his business interests and make it more difficult for courts to convict him, including an attempt to reduce “false accounting” from a crime to a misdemeanour; a media cross-ownership Bill enabling him to retain control of Italy’s three main commercial television channels; and a provision for defendants to have trials moved or annulled if they have a “legitimate suspicion” that judges are biased against them.

[MadIvan]

Prodi was recently quoted in the newspapers as saying he wanted another term as EU president, considering how much he enjoyed the job, and how well his advisers said he was doing it.

Cue laughter

I guess that's that then.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[detsaoT]

The EU is the most corrupt organization since the Soviet Union - but then again, the criminals had to work somewhere...

Bump for later reading.

:) ttt

[Shermy]

Prodi is an arch-Euralist, no?

[ellery]

Bwaahaaahaa