Italy: Berlusconi bribery trial reopens

[emad]

John Hooper in Rome
Saturday April 17, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>
The trial of the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, returned to court yesterday after 10 months of high parliamentary and judicial drama, and ran straight into further controversy, the prosecution claiming that the presiding judge was biased in favour of the defendant.

Mr Berlusconi, who was not in court, is accused of bribing judges, an offence for which his former lawyer has already been given a five-year prison sentence.

The prosecution had hoped for a swift conclusion to the trial, but on Thursday the presiding judge, Francesco Castellano, said that the hearings would soon be suspended to prevent the trial being exploited in the European and regional elections in June.

The trial was adjourned last June when parliament granted Mr Berlusconi and four other state officials immunity from prosecution. The law was later overturned as unconstitutional.
<snip>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1193826,00.html


And an even better week next week when on Thursday 22April, the God's Banker murder trial resumes in Italy....where 20 years of hidden evidence about BFEE involvement in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and Roberto Calvi's death is presented to the world.

Stuff that in your cabinet and eat it, Chimpy....