Former defence minister found guilty of corruption
01 November 2003
On 22 November 2003 Cesare Previti, a close advisor of Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and MP for the Forza Italia party who was also his lawyer, and defence minister in Berlusconi's first government in 1994, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison in a court in Milan. He was found to have corrupted judges in Rome through the payment of $434,000. His co-defendants Attilio Pacifico, a lawyer, and Renato Squillante, the former head of the Rome giudici per le investigazioni preliminari (judges for preliminary investigations), were also found guilty; Pacifico faces a four-year sentence, whereas Squillante received an eight-year sentence. Prosecutors had asked for 11-year sentences to be passed for the more serious charges of corruption to influence a trial, in relation to the failed acquisition of the SME state food corporation by the CIR group that was headed by De Benedetti in 1986, after a court annulled an agreement that had been previously reached. The defendants were cleared of influencing the trial, and Judge Vittorio Metta was consequently acquitted.
The verdict brought to a close a trial that has lasted for over three years, amid repeated efforts by Previti to have it moved from Milan, where he argued that the judges were biased. A law was even passed by the government to allow defendants to have a trial moved on grounds of "legitimate suspicion" that judges may be partial, but Previti's application was denied. Previti's lawyer used the same argument to explain the verdict, arguing that "In the appeal hearing, we hope to find judges who are more impartial". Previti had already been found guilty (pending appeal) and sentenced to an 11-year prison term on 29 April 2003, in connection with the IMI-SIR/Lodo Mondadori case, also related to the alleged corruption of judges in a trial concerning the control of the publishing group, Mondadori. According to the plaintiffs, the De Benedetti group, "the control of the Mondadori group, which was firmly in the hands of CIR in 1990, was taken away from it following a sentence that has today been recognised to have been brought about by corruption". His co-defendants, who were also found guilty, again included Squillante (8 years, 6 months), Pacifico (11 years), and Metta (13 years), as well as Felice Rovelli, Giovanni Acampora and Primarosa Battistelli, who received custodial sentences of between four and a half and six years.
Berlusconi was a defendant in the early stages of both cases, and in the latter the prosecution argued that Previti was corrupting judges on his behalf. However, proceedings against him were first separated from those against the other defendants, and later suspended in compliance with the tailor-made law 140/2003 (the so-called Lodo Schifani) that was passed on 20 June 2003 to prevent top state officials (the president, prime minister, the leaders of the two legislative chambers (the parliament and senate), and the president of the constitutional court) from undergoing judicial proceedings while they are in office (see Statewatch news online August 2003). The constitutional court is expected to reach a decision in December as to whether the law violates the Italian Constitution.
Corriere della Sera 22.11.03; La sentenza IMI-SIR/Mondadori (The IMI-SIR/Mondadori sentence), 29.4.03; Repubblica 29.4.03.