Italy's courts protest against Berlusconi's jibes

Italy’s magistrates staged courtroom protests across the country today over premier Silvio Berlusconi’s latest attack on prosecutors and judges.

Mr Berlusconi has a history of legal woes stemming from his business interests before he entered politics. Earlier this week, he hit out at what he said were communist judges and prosecutors intent on destroying him.

The judges’ association branded the comments “groundless and ridiculous” and threatened a strike as judges and prosecutors gathered in protest in courtrooms in Milan, Rome and other cities.

The accusation that the judiciary is dominated by communists is not new for Mr Berlusconi. But the latest attack came amid heightened tensions over the judiciary, with the premier facing two trials in Milan after an immunity law shielding him from prosecution while in office was overturned earlier this month.

“The real Italian anomaly is not Silvio Berlusconi,” the premier said on TV. “The Italian anomaly are communist prosecutors and communist judges in Milan who have attacked him since Silvio Berlusconi has entered politics and taken power away from communists.”

“I wonder: Is Silvio Berlusconi really the most criminal entrepreneur in the history of the world?” he said.

Of the two cases pending for Mr Berlusconi, one is a tax fraud trial over the purchase of TV rights by his Mediaset broadcasting company and is scheduled to resume next month.

The other is a corruption case in which Mr Berlusconi is accused of ordering the 1997 payment of at least £400,000 (€447,639) to British lawyer David Mills, estranged husband of Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, in exchange for the lawyer’s false testimony in court to protect Mr Berlusconi. No date has been set.

The premier has maintained his innocence, and in previous cases, he has either been acquitted or seen the statute of limitations expire.

This week, an appeals court in Milan upheld Mill’s conviction on corruption charges in the lawyer’s portion of the trial. Mills has maintained his innocence and said he will appeal, but the verdict dealt a blow to Mr Berlusconi.

Magistrates maintain Mr Berlusconi wants to intimidate the whole judiciary.

“The accusations of a political bias is among the most defamatory ones that can be thrown at a judge,” Giuseppe Cascini, the secretary of the association of magistrates, said.

“Certainly if things continue to go on this way a strike will be inevitable.”

Milan prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said that if magistrates are “red”, it is for the blood they have spilled in the defence of law and the constitution, a reference to the terrorist attacks of the 1970s and 1980s and to the fight against the Mafia.