ITALIAN PRIME minister Silvio Berlusconi this week finds himself in a familiar, if uncomfortable place. For the umpteenth time in his 15-year political career, the prime minister faces serious accusations of corruption following the release of the motivazioni(the judge's full explanation) of the February sentence which saw his onetime London-based lawyer, David Mills, receive a 4½-year jail sentence from a Milan court.
In her 376-page account of the case, judge Nicoletta Gandus comes to the firm conclusion Mr Mills perjured himself by offering less-than-complete testimony during Milan trails in the late 1990s in which the prime minister stood accused of fraud and corruption.
Furthermore, she claims Mr Mills did so in return for a $600,000 bribe from Mr Berlusconi, writing: “ was compensation for and an acknowledgment that he had honoured the agreement . . . on the orders of Silvio Berlusconi.”
As one of the architects of Mr Berlusconi’s once-complex network of offshore companies, Mr Mills, estranged husband of British “Olympics” minister Teresa Jowell, had proved to be of great interest to the Milan investigators. In a 2004 letter to his accountant, Bob Drennan, Mr Mills acknowledged the delicacy of his evidence when writing that although he had “told no lies”, he did “turn some very tricky corners” in order to keep “Mr B out of a great deal of trouble”.
Inevitably, the prime minister’s reaction to the judicial explanation was tempestuous. Pointing out that he had spent more than €200 million defending himself in 102 different trials over the last 15 years, the furious prime minister said: “This verdict is simply scandalous . . . Yet, I am absolutely serene. When the trial starts up again , I have no doubt that there will be a complete acquittal because it is an incontrovertible fact that no payment was made by anyone to Mr Mills.”
Needless to say, opposition figures did not read the verdict in the same light. Democratic Party leader Dario Franceschini called on Mr Berlusconi to renounce his judicial immunity (introduced last July by his own government) and answer the charges related to the Mills case in court. Former “Operation Clean Hands” investigating magistrate Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the Italy of Values party, called on the prime minister to resign, saying he was “xenophobic, a member of P2, a fascist and also corrupt”.
For his part, the prime minister has promised to address parliament on the Mills issue, at some future date. He says he will tell parliament just what he thinks of certain magistrates. Doubtless his opinion will be less than flattering.