Deliberations start in Berlusconi bribery trial

Italian judges started deliberations today in Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s four-year-long bribery trial in Milan.

The premier, who was not in court, has maintained his innocence. Prosecutors are seeking a guilty verdict and a sentence of eight years.

The verdict was expected tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, said the ANSA and Apcom news agencies, quoting presiding Judge Francesco Castellano.

Berlusconi, Italy’s richest man and currently the longest-governing prime minister, has made only three appearances in his trial. In Italy, defendants can decline to attend their trials.

At the core of the case is the sale in the 1980s of a state food conglomerate, SME.

In 1985, judges blocked the sale of SME to the Buitoni group led by Carlo De Benedetti, a top Italian industrialist, and ruled in favour of a group of magnates including Berlusconi.

The prosecution alleged that Berlusconi gave money to one of his close associates, Cesare Previti, to bribe judges in Rome and win the purchase of SME. Berlusconi said he got involved in the deal at the request of Bettino Craxi, premier at the time, and only to serve the nation’s interest.

On a second count in the trial, Berlusconi is also accused of bribing another Rome judge, Renato Squillante, to keep him onside in potential cases against him. Defence lawyers reject this accusation as well, and say prosecutors have failed to detail cases in which Squillante could have been of use to Berlusconi.

Berlusconi says he is the victim of left-leaning prosecutors. Last week, in their closing arguments, lawyers told the court that a corruption conviction would do harm to the country’s reputation and described it as a tragedy.

Prosecutors argued for conviction on both counts of corruption and asked for a total sentence of eight years. Conviction on either count could bring a sentence of one to five years.

If convicted, Berlusconi wouldn’t face any immediate risk of having a jail cell door slam shut on him. Italy’s slow-moving justice system allows for two appeals before a sentence must be served.

If convicted, Berlusconi would then be faced with the dilemma of whether to resign.

Elected in 2001, he is striving to be the first Italian premier to serve out the full five-year term in a country with decades of “revolving door” governments.

Berlusconi has faced several criminal cases related to his business empire ever since he entered politics a decade ago. In previous trials, he has been acquitted, or his convictions have been reversed on appeal or annulled because of the statute of limitations.

The alleged bribery examined in the current trial dates back to the years before the start of a political career for Berlusconi, a media baron whose empire also includes insurance, construction, property and other interests.

Previti, who served as defence minister in Berlusconi’s first government in 1994, was convicted of corruption last year and sentenced to five years in prison, but was cleared of allegations he paid bribes to influence the sale of SME.

The SME trial started in March 2000 but was halted after the passage of a government-backed law that made the premier and four other top office holders immune from prosecution.

The trial resumed in April after the Constitutional Court ruled that the law violated the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.