Italy’s supreme court last night confirmed a four-year suspended prison sentence for former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi – commuted previously to one year under an amnesty – on charges of tax evasion in the so-called Mediaset trial.
At the same time, however, the court ordered that a five-year ban from public office be reconsidered by a Milan appeals court. In other words, Berlusconi has been found guilty and yet partially acquitted of the same sentence.
Supporters of Berlusconi gathered outside his Rome residence initially greeted the verdict with wild enthusiasm, only to stop their celebrations when they realised the original four-year sentence had been confirmed.
Statute of limitations
Down the road at the supreme court, opponents of Berlusconi opened a bottle of prosecco to celebrate what they saw as a historic guilty verdict, even if the decision to send one part of the sentence back to the Milan appeals court means the entire trial runs the risk of falling foul of the statute of limitations.
Berlusconi, who has always claimed he is the victim of a political witch-hunt orchestrated by left-wing magistrates, has regularly pointed out that despite 17 trials over the past 20 years, he has not been found guilty in a major case.
Following yesterday’s judgment, that claim no longer stands because the supreme court ruling was the third and final level of judgment in the Mediaset tax fraud case.
What remains unclear is just how, when and if the ban from public office will be enacted.
For that to take place, a Milan appeals court ruling would have to issue another ban, which would then come before parliament’s immunity committee prior to a vote in the senate.
Call for acquittal
In court on Wednesday, Berlusconi's senior defence lawyer, Franco Coppi, had called for the acquittal of the media tycoon, arguing that the crime of which he stood accused was "criminally irrelevant" since Berlusconi had broken no law.
The defence lawyer also suggested that the prosecution had provided "no proof" that Berlusconi had had any involvement in the running of his Mediaset TV company since 1995, the year after he entered politics with his Forza Italia party.
“The entire appeal court ruling [last May] is based on an [unproven] prejudice . . . namely that in the 1980s Berlusconi set up a fraudulent, criminal mechanism,” he added.
At worst, argued lawyer Mr Coppi, Berlusconi was guilty of “an inaccurate tax return”.
In contrast, the prosecution on Tuesday had sustained that Berlusconi had been the mentor behind a complex system of fiscal fraud involving Mediaset.
Via the use of offshore companies, he had used the purchase of US TV film rights to create a $40 million (€30 million) slush fund and avoid taxation, even from 2001 to 2003, when he had served as prime minister and when Mediaset had evaded tax on $7.3 million of revenue.
This latest judicial setback for Berlusconi comes at the end of almost 25 years when he has regularly featured in high-profile court cases.
As far back as 1989, he was found guilty of “false evidence” in the investigation into the infamous P2 Masonic lodge, of which he had been a member. That guilty verdict was subsequently erased by a judicial amnesty.
Major investigations
Since then, and especially after he entered politics in 1994 with Forza Italia, Berlusconi has featured in at least 17 major investigations, accused of tax evasion, money laundering, corruption, bribery of a judge, bribery of a court witness, abuse of office and involvement in underage prostitution, to name but the most obvious charges.
On four occasions, Berlusconi has been acquitted, while in another 10 trials he has been saved either by a judicial amnesty or by the statute of limitations.
In late June a Milan court gave him a seven-year suspended prison sentence and banned him for life from public office for “abuse of office” and “involvement in underage prostitution” in the context of the “Rubygate” sex scandal.
That judgment is being appealed by the Berlusconi defence team.