Post date: Jun 19, 2013 1:13:18 PM
Italy's Supreme Court is set to rule on a conviction for tax fraud involving Silvio Berlusconi. If the conviction is upheld, the former prime minister could be banned from holding public office for five years and placed under house arrest.
ROME, ITALY (REUTERS) - Italy's Supreme Court is set to rule on Wednesday (June 19) whether a conviction is to be upheld in a tax fraud case involving former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi, 76, has been convicted of inflating the price paid for television rights by his Mediaset network to create illegal slush funds. After passing through several appeals the court will now decide whether the jail sentence and ban from public office is to be confirmed or the trial needs to restart."If they find in favour of Berlusconi ... will save him from his major conviction which is four years in jail and a five years ban from public office for a slush fund and tax evasion case. And if they allow that case to be moved and reheard then that's the end of that case," explained Professor James Walston of the American University of Rome.
"If they accept the prosecution's argument then the case will go finally to the Court of Cassation, Italy's Supreme Court, sometime later in this year or very early in 2014. If that happens and if the conviction is upheld there will be major problems for the Italian government as well as obviously for Berlusconi," Walston added.
Berlusconi denies all charges against him and says he is a victim of persecution by left-wing magistrates. The media billionaire is also waiting for the verdict expected on June 24 in a case that accuses him of having sex with a minor and abuse of office.
The girl at the centre of the trial has been dubbed Ruby Heartstealer by the Italian press. While the Ruby case has had greater international media coverage, the three-stroke appeals process allowed under Italian judicial law will mean a final verdict in the trial will not come out for several years.
"Now if it arrives to the third degree and Berlusconi is condemned in the third degree this is a final condemnation and all the effects of the condemnation become active," said Professor Giovanni Orsina from the Luiss University in Rome. "While in Ruby's case this is only the first degree, so there are still second and the third one. So we might expect a final decision on Ruby in maybe four or five years, while in this other trial the decision might come in the next say six to eight months," he added.
According to Orsina, if the Court of Cassation condemns the former prime minister, "then Berlusconi stops being a deputy, and he will not be arrested, he is not going to go to jail, but he's going to maybe have home arrest."
Berlusconi, head of the centre-right People of Freedom party (PDL), is not a member of the coalition led by Prime Minister Enrico Letta, but his party is a member of the uneasy coalition and he has the power to bring it down. Most experts believe that Berlusconi's greater interest is to stay out of prison rather than pull Italy back into political chaos.
"He does not want to bring the government down. But he also has as his primary objective to keep out of jail and to prevent himself from being convicted," said Walston.
There is the chance that he will go from being playing the grand old statesman inItaly to being a populist rabble rouser on the election trail if he is convicted," Walston added.
The court of cassation is expected to deliver its verdict later on Wednesday.