300. Berlusconi and the Justice System
I am continuing a series of blogs on Silvio Berlusconi in answer to tweets
sent to me by Twitter @gibrayl International relations and diplomatic affairs
(Middle East, US, Africa, Latin America, Europe) - International Communication
and Cultural Studies- https://twitter.com/#!/gibrayl
Tweet No. 2
2) He has never been discharged but
he has always worked with his lawyers and through laws "ad personam"
to get the prescription.
My Answer
Berlusconi has been prosecuted by
some of the Milanese Magistrates for accusations that number in their hundreds
which makes one wonder, either Berlusconi is the greatest criminal of all times
or he is well and truly persecuted with
the aim of eliminating him from
political power.
Another point worth noting is that I
would very much like someone to come up with at least one of the laws Berlusconi has created which can be described
to be “ad personam”- in other words, a law, legitimately passed by parliament
that can be identified to be a law simply created to save his skin.
If
by chance one of the hundreds of Berlusconi’s cases cannot be tried
because it has fallen into prescription, this is certainly not Berlusconi’s
fault but of the system which takes 13-20
years, if not longer to judge a civil case, even if it is slightly less for
a penal one- and indeed may take a mere 6
years if the foreign press is involved as in the case of Amanda Knox.
With such conditions is it any wonder
that the Berlusconi government tried to reform the justice system? But the reforms made can hardly be described
as “ad personam”.
The Reforms
1. Il Processo Breve- (The Brief Trial)
This law establishes that trials are
subject to “a reasonable length of time”
otherwise the trial will be extinct if a first sentence is not reached within three years. I can well remember, in the US and the UK
that murderers have been tried and sentenced to death or life imprisonment
within a few months. In effect hearings abroad
are fixed for the next day or even that same afternoon. A hearing in the afternoon is a thing unheard of in Italy. In Italy hearings are months apart from one another... I
often wondered why, and the most plausible explanation is that no one in a
court of law can do shorthand, use modern technical equipment and the photo copier is often out of order-
yes, hearings have been put off for much less.
And this is claimed to be a law to favour just Berlusconi and one should
return to the eternal stagnation of the previous interminable lengths of the Judicial
System with thousands of prisoners
in overcrowded jails waiting for a sentence???
2. Separation of Functions
In Britain, it is the police that arrests, investigate and
brings to trial an individual. This
function was done by the Pubblico Ministero i.e. Public Prosecutor, who however was also the Judge. No, I haven’t got
myself muddled up, that’s how it was until the Berlusconi government came up
with the separation of functions, in other words a Public Prosecutor could not
also be the Judge. If this is a law
created ad personam, I can well imagine why Berlusconi created it, if he was
going to be judged by the same judge who prosecuted him, fat chance did he have
of a fair trial- fat chance anyone had
for that matter. Italians can only be but grateful for this reform.
3. Civil Responsibility of Judges
Up until a week or two ago, judges
were above the law, they could do no
wrong. If they made a mistake or gave a
wrong sentence, they were not held
responsible for their decision in any way whatsoever. Berlusconi tried to pass a law against this,
but because of the powers that be, he was not allowed to do so. Italians had to wait until the new Prime
Minister, Mario Monti came to govern
before this legislation was allowed to become law. However, there was a great deal of uproar and
discontent among the magistrates, threatening
that with such a law no judge would ever
come to a decision in case he made an error!!! Someone set fire to the lot
of them, please!
4. Phone Tapping Curtailed
This law restricts phone tapping to serious cases, not as it was until
recently when every Tom, Dick and Harry were all subject to being bugged, even
if they had nothing to do with crime or criminals. The proof of this is a report by Eurispes that shows the astronomical
figures of phone tapping done. In the year 2007 alone 112,623 phones were under
tapping surveillance for a sum of €224.000.000,00. The numbers have since increased. The Justice
system shows to be in arrears with phone surveillance agencies for the sum of 400 million of Euros.
Is it any wonder Italy is in such great debt... How much does your
government spend on phone tapping, hardly 1/20th I shouldn’t
wonder.
Of course a law such as this is ad
personam... about time too- however, what
the hell does a Magistrate in Milan do with the noises he hears in Berlusconi’s toilet chamber???
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