Tax-fraud trial against Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi resumes

[News_Editor]

Tax-fraud trial against Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi resumes

2011-02-28 21:55:07 GMT+7 (ICT)

MILAN, ITALY (BNO NEWS) -- The tax-fraud trial against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday was resumed in a Milan court, the ANSA news agency reported.

The PM did not attend court for the first of the three graft trials over the fraudulent sale of film rights. The graft trials were reactivated after a Constitutional Court partly lifted a judicial shield that protected Berlusconi.

The so-called legitimate impediment law impeded the Prime Minister from attending hearings regarding three trials against him. The Court's ruling dismantled the overall framework of the immunity law and allowed judges to assess on a case-by-case basis whether the PM should attend the hearings.

"Four trials in Milan for the premier is a situation without precedent," said Berlusconi's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini. "It is beyond normality."

Ghedine said that the PM will attend the next hearing of the first trial on April 11. The second graft trial is scheduled to resume on March 11. The PM is accused of paying British tax lawyer David Mills for allegedly favorable testimony.

On March 5, the third corruption trial will be restarted from scratch over the accusations of the alleged film-sale tax irregularities by a Mediaset unit, Mediatrade, owned by Berlusconi.

In addition, the PM will face a fourth trial over the prostitution scandal with an underage Moroccan dancer and abuse of power. The first hearing was scheduled for April 6 and prosecutors claimed to have ample evidence against the Italian leader.

On Sunday, Berlusconi vowed to stay as Prime Minister until the end of his term in office in 2013. Opposition parties have demanded the dismissal of Berlusconi due to the fraud and prostitution scandals.

Berlusconi added that the Milan prosecutors are trying to oust him from office as he claimed his innocence once more. Meanwhile, thousands of women rallied in more than 200 Italian cities to protest Berlusconi's alleged behavior toward women and demand his resignation.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-02-28

[surayu]

A bit like Al Capone isn'it? they couldn't frame him in any other ways other then for the taxes...despite having so many much worses crimes on his coscience.

2 of the top judges fighting agaist the mafia lost their life, before to die, one of them was filmed claiming the connection between pm and mafia, kind of confirming the theory he's just a puppet manouvred from them, if you make the comparisons between the way he conduct himself and how a real mafia's man would react to the same situations you will notice amazing similarities, but what is even more worrying it's the support he gets from the masses and how people seems to believe all his b/s and abuse of power, how can a pm telling an unemployed lady that the solution to her problems and to all other people like her is just to marry somebody like his(the pm's) son? and in a public national television interview? and changing the laws in a way that only him and his cronies will benefit, creating an even more unbearable situation to the already desperate condition of the middle and lower classes? Honestly he's a clown in the wrong place, his ministers are not better, some of them have been elected just because they partecipated to his orgies, yes, you read it right, no exagerations or censorships here, then he got caught red handed having sex with a minor and instead to be put on a pedo list and sent to jail he gets even more votes?!!!!! wasn't the law equal for everyones? and he send the police escorts and government funded cars to collect to their private homes "working ladies" and others to his private residence with the money of the taxpayers??? 150.000 Euros in 3 months to one of these ladytoy using public funds? and he's still there???? because as he say in a public interview "he's not a gay man like those leftists" , arrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhh, i haven't got anything against this man personally, but his actions are soooooooo wrong and i can't figure it out how does he manage to remain in power after this and all the rest, believe me there is sooo much more to add but i guess you got the idea, plus the translations i am watching in tv with the reports are wrong, the translators(EuroNews) are covering him up and the journalists are also playing his game (BBC claimed he only paid 3.000 Euros when it was common knowledge it was 150.000 Euros plus everything else)