30 January 2008

Let the politicians put themselves on trial

I’m publishing an interview I gave to il Corriere della Sera about the possibility of a conviction for Silvio Berlusconi in the judicial proceedings about Mediaset rights.
CdS: Minister Antonio Di Pietro, the President of the Republic is carrying out consultations, there’s the feeling of political elections in the air and they are going back to talking about a trial that sees Silvio Berlusconi as a defendant and how that and the decisions of the magistracy could influence the election campaign.
Antonio Di Pietro: It is significant that everyone is worrying about the prescrizione {time limit to get to the conclusion} of this trial and how to get there as soon as possible. Thanks to the laws approved during the government of the Centre Right this prescrizione will very probably arrive before the trial has ended with the final degree of judgement {the final appeal}.
The basic problem for the country is another one: do we want to have a President of the Council, if Berlusconi were to get there, getting the prescrizione for the umpteenth time or that it is ascertained that he has not committed crimes? No one, even more so the magistracy, could have thought of the collapse of the Prodi government when there was a request for the unification of the two trials.
CdS: From Berlusconi’s lawyers, from Forza Italia and from other political environments however, this is what they are talking about.
Antonio Di Pietro:It is not the work of the magistracy to place conditions on the elections, on the other hand, the elections are an element of disturbance for the trial. It would be good that all those who now are gathering round Berlusconi ask that these two trials come to an end as soon as possible, within a few months and before the election campaign gets lively, so that his full innocence can be verified. And the defendant can be cleared of any shadow of suspicion.
And then, how is it possible to talk about political intervention when we are still in a state of pre-crisis and we still don’t know if there will be an election campaign and elections?
CdS: Is it like saying there’s so much fuss about nothing?
Antonio Di Pietro:So, I repeat, let Berlusconi let himself be tried. It is not even a good thing for him that there are ongoing trials.
I believe that the time has come for the Italian citizens to rebel against this distorted and conditioned information. That they open their eyes and that they ask if the blame for all this is down to the magistracy or to those who commit the actions that the magistrates are then obliged to take an interest in.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice