Animal Farm defense

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

from the Times On-Line:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6864928.ece#

Silvio Berlusconi suffered perhaps the greatest setback in his long career today when Italy's top court stripped him of immunity from prosecution.

The verdict, from the panel of 15 senior judges in the Constitutional Court, will reopen a number of criminal trials against the 73-year-old Prime Minister, who may now face charges over allegations that he paid his former British tax lawyer, David Mills, $600,000 to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s.

The ruling comes after a string of sex scandals involving the media tycoon, but is likely to prove far more damaging to his 17-month-old Government.

Mr Berlusconi's spokesman said today that the ruling had been politically motivated and said that the Prime Minister fully intended to remain in office.

The court had been asked to rule on a law passed by Mr Berlusconi as one of his first acts in government which protects the four most senior office-holders in the country from prosecution.

Specifically, the judges had been asked whether it violated a key principle of the constitution which states that all Italians are equal before the law.

In a hearing which began yesterday, Mr Berlusconi's lawyers used what was quickly dubbed the "Animal Farm defence" after the motto in George Orwell's novel "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

Gaetano Pecorella, one of four lawyers representing the billionaire politician at the hearing, told the court: "He is no longer ‘first among equals’, but ought to be considered ‘first above equals."

Another, Niccolo Ghedini, added: "The law is equal for everyone, but not always in its application."

The long-awaited hearing began the day after another judge said that Mr Berlusconi was "co-responsible for corruption" in a bribery case revolving around a hostile takeover of a publishing firm by his media empire in the 1990s.

The immunity law came into effect when Mr Berlusconi was a co-defendant in the trial of Mr Mills, his former tax adviser and the estranged husband of the British MP Tessa Jowell. He was accused of bribing him to give false testimony in two previous trials.

OT:  the Los Angeles Times, noting that 4 of the 6 US winners of this year's Nobel Prizes were born outside the US, referred to one of them as having "duel citizenship".

      - Jim Landau


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