30 March 2006
Corruptors in Parliament
Yesterday an explanation of the Milan Appeal Court Judges’ decision in the Sme-Ariosto trial was issued. This explains why on 2 December 2005 they confirmed the sentence to five years imprisonment of Cesare Previti for the crime of corrupting the ex-magistrate Renato Squillante.
I recently gave a short interview to la Repubblica on this topic:
Di Pietro: “Berlusconi should say: I am grateful to the magistrates for allowing me to find out who has been using my money but hiding this from me. And instead what is he doing? He is criminalizing the magistrates. For years he has been against anyone checking up on anything connected with himself, he insults the judges and then he pays them….”
Journalist: “Honourable Di Pietro, you are leader of Italia die Valori and ex judge in Mani Pulite, you are very familiar with the SME trial, now are you being provocatory?
Di Pietro: “I’m not being provocatory, I’m stating my opinion. In a normal country a person like Berlusconi should feel the moral duty to stand back. Let the documents speak.
Journalist: Are you accusing the Prime Minister of being involved?
Di Pietro: “The involvement is demonstrated by the facts: which employee would dream of using his employer’s money without asking his permission?”
Journalist: “Fininvest has repeated that there was no corruption.”
Di Pietro: “Was the money given to Squillante so that he could have white hair? I want to make a political point here, not give a legal opinion.”
Journalist: “What is Berlusconi’s political responsibility?”
Di Pietro: “He has enormous political and moral responsibility. Every time that Berlusconi has discovered someone using his money for corruption, instead of sending them away, he has made sure they’ve been elected in Parliament: Previti, Brancher... We’ve had enough of people hiding behind time limits for convictions, amnesties and laws made for individuals. Berlusconi has a moral responsibility that is not connected to the results of trials whose results depend on the small print.”
Journalist: “Aren’t the Centre Left going to suffer an “own goal” if they use judicial action to attack the Prime Minister?
Di Pietro: “But it’s not possible to stay quiet! This pretence of “goodness” on the part of certain pseudo-legal people is hypocritical. The problem is that Berlusconi and his friends are a group of open-minded people who have decided to bend the institutions to their personal ends and are transforming our country from a State based on rights into a Banana Republic. Watch out that we don’t leave them to have our country for another 5 years.”
Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice