Post date: Feb 26, 2012 12:39:41 PM
The case surrounding Mills was one of the most prominent of the scandals involving Berlusconi, Italy's richest media entrepreneur as well as its dominant political figure of the past two decades.
Berlusconi, who denied paying Mills to provide untruthful court testimony, was not in the Milan court on Saturday (February 25) to hear Judge Francesca Vitale read a brief statement declaring that the trial, which began in 2007, was now closed.
Italians criticize their country's legal system after a court clears former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of corruption charges because the statute of limitations has expired.
ROME, ITALY (FEBRUARY 26, 2012) (REUTERS) - Italians said on Sunday (February 26) that they were frustrated by their legal system after a court ended former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's trial on charges of bribing British lawyer David Mills, saying the statute of limitations had run out and a verdict could not be reached.
"Unfortunately with the current law it (the verdict) was already pre-announced", said resident Leonardo Caravaggio.
To Italians, the workings and procedures of justice appeared as far too obscure to understand, while Berlusconi stood out as a man who had always succeeded in saving himself from risky trials.
"By now we are used to it, right?", Gaspare Germano said with resignation.
Piergiorgio Carrara pointed out that the Berlusconi-Mills trial verdict was an example of the way things worked in Italy when it came down to justice.
"I think that justice only works, or rather does not work, for ordinary citizens, or works only for ordinary citizens, as you prefer. I think either that a normal person would already have been convicted years ago, or that justice in Italy does not work and you cannot reach a verdict," he said.
But another resident, Giorgia Bocchi, said she preferred not to comment for the time being on the outcomes of the trial.
"Simply I will wait to hear the verdict, the motivations of the verdict in three months' time," she said.
Prosecutors had been seeking a five-year prison sentence but the decision effectively lifts the threat of any sanction against the 75-year-old media tycoon, who controls Italy's biggest private television broadcaster.
Berlusconi, who resigned as prime minister in November as the euro zone crisis menaced Italy, has been involved in a string of legal cases since he entered politics in 1994.
He has either been acquitted or seen the cases expire under Italy's statute of limitations, repeatedly accusing what he called politically biased left-wing judges of mounting a campaign to destroy him.