Milan: Premier Silvio Berlusconi's corruption
trial was suspended today pending the final appeal by his
co-defendant, who was convicted of accepting a bribe in
exchange for lying in court to protect the premier's business
interests.
Prosecutors accuse Berlusconi of ordering the 1997
payment of USD 600,000 to British lawyer David Mills in
exchange for his false testimony in two trials. Both
Berlusconi and Mills have denied wrongdoing. Mills, who was
sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, is in the second and final
round of appeals against his conviction in the case.
Berlusconi's portion of the trial, meanwhile, had been
put on hold by an immunity law sparing him from prosecution
while in office. But the trial resumed in December after
Italy's Constitutional Court overturned the law.
Today, the three-judge panel in Milan suspended the trial
again until February 27, pending a ruling on Mills' appeal.
The defense had argued that the Mills case ruling could
influence Berlusconi's case. The statute of limitations on the
case was frozen until the new date.
''The Supreme Court sentence will allow the trial to
proceed with more clarity,'' defence lawyer Niccolo Ghedini
said. ''We are not trying to disrupt the proceedings. In fact,
it was I who asked to freeze the statute of limitations, which
I was not obligated by law to do.''
Berlusconi skipped the hearing Friday, but Ghedini said
the premier never intended to show up until further along when
issues of substance arise.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 15, 2010, 20:19