21 July 2008

Prosecuting the unpunishables

On the 9th July I published the first courtroom summary by our reporter Daniele Martinelli concerning the Mills case. After yesterday’s hearing, namely 19 July, from Milan it would appear that any chance that the public may have had of finding out the truth regarding the money that changed hands between the Prime Minister and attorney David Mills has finally gone up in smoke. As a matter of fact, as I explained in my article entitled "Silvio frees everyone", dated 16 July, between the Alfano Bill and all the last minute amendments that were made, both of the accused will now thwart the judge’s attempts to enforce the will of the justice system.
Silvio Berlusconi has admirably carried out the task for which he got himself elected by the Country’s voters, namely to avoid having to settle his account with the justice system. However, the electorate voted him in for very different reasons and they are now paying an extremely high price for his electoral lies.
Milan, 18 July 2008, Daniele Martinelli:
The Court of Milan was the scene for the final hearing in the Berlusconi-Mills case, with the deposition submitted by the Premier’s tax consultant who attempted to explain that the millions of dollars that made their way into a myriad of foreign accounts throughout the whole of Europe really had nothing to do with the dealings between the two accused.
This will be the last hearing related to this case because the Senate is scheduled to vote on the Alfano Bill on Tuesday, which will make Berlusconi immune from prosecution in any Court and cancel the jurisdiction of the judicial council chaired by Nicoletta Gandus.
The new law is scheduled to be published in the Government Gazette on Wednesday, followed by instant approval on Thursday, without even waiting for the prescribed 15-day cooling-off period to expire.
Thus, in one fell swoop, Silvio Berlusconi will go from being a defendant accused of corruption relating to legal documents, to being a free man.
His co-accused, David Mills, will also get away scot-free following the last minute amendment that the Government introduced into the so-called security package, which will, in fact, further reduce security in that it will make criminals guilty of any crimes punishable by up to 7 and a half years of imprisonment, go totally unpunished.

As regards David Mills, all he has to do is enter a plea-bargain, in other words, he pleads guilty for his part in the crime in order to access the generic extenuating circumstances, plus he gets a one-third discount off his sentence, which, in the case of a 7 year sentence for corruption, would be reduced to 5 years thanks to the plea bargain, and then further reduced to 2 years after a further 3 years are deducted for the pardon. At the end of the day, he would get a 2-year sentence, which, being less than the 3 years, would result in the Silvio Berlusconi’s British nominee avoiding having to serve any jail time. An inexplicable sentence indeed, without any explanation of the reasons for pleading guilty and that in David Mill’s case would necessarily involve the now-immune Silvio Berlusconi who, while he may avoided any criminal charges, would not go equally scot-free on the moral issue, nor as regards his public image abroad. What this means is that the last minute amendment has effectively shut down this case without having shed any light on possible crimes committed by the two accused.
David Mills was the founder of the foreign companies that can be traced back to Berlusconi, as well as being the architect of the money laundering activities that took place via said companies, All Iberian amongst them, used by the Premier to provide 22 billion Italian Lire of funding to Bettino Craxi’s socialist party, just before the Tangentopoli scandal hit the headlines.
An entire spider’s web of foreign companies through which, according to conservative estimates, at least 2 thousand billion Italian Lire were transferred, all well out of sight of the Italian tax authorities and, therefore, also hidden from the Italian citizens.
In order to save 2 defendants that would surely have been found guilty, the Berlusconi Government has shredded the judiciary and leaving thousands of other criminals out on the streets.
All in the name of so-called security.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice