A Milan court sentenced Silvio Berlusconi, also called the Cavaliere, to one year in prison as a result of the dissemination of wiretaps that involved his own party, the People of Freedom (PdL).
On February 7, the Milan court sentenced Silvio Berlusconi to a year in prison for publishing illegal wiretapping. Berlusconi’s brother, Paolo Berlusconi, owner of the newspaper Il Giornale, has meanwhile been sentenced to two years and three months for posting this information in his newspaper.
The wiretapping in question involved the former head of the Italian left, Piero Fassino, president of Unipol, regarding a takeover of the bank BNL (BNP Paribas group). During this telephone conversation, Piero Fassina had said: “Now we have a bank!”
According to the prosecution (Unipol and Piero Fassina), these recordings were transmitted to Silvio Berlusconi by Roberto Raffaelli, then President of Research Control System (the company that provided equipment for wiretapping for the court) in December 2005. Roberto Raffaelli had “offered” these recordings before the general elections of 2006, when Silvio Berlusconi opposed the Democratic Party (PD, center left), according to Il Fatto Quotidiano.
“Permanent attack against the Cavaliere,” Il Giornale wrote after the announcement of the sentence pronounced by the court of Milan, the usual rhetoric of Silvio Berlusconi’s victimization by the “red judges”. He responded by declaring himself the subject of “intolerable persecution.” Absent from the court, the leader of the People of Freedom (PdL) was prevented to come due to a “conjunctivitis,” said Il Giornale.
Silvio Berlusconi denies all charges and could, once again, appeal the verdict. His calendar for the current month is loaded: March 18 is the date of delivering the judgment on the “Rubygate” trial (for abuse of power and sex with an underage prostitute), on March 23 an appeal hearing will be held regarding the Mediaset case (the media group belonging to Berlusconi family Berlusconi).
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