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ITALY’S TOP COURT has confirmed a prison sentence for former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in his first ever definitive conviction, which could upset the country’s fragile coalition government.
The court upheld a sentence for tax fraud of four years in prison of which three are covered by an amnesty, even though Berlusconi is certain to be granted community service or house arrest instead.
The Senate will have to vote to lift Berlusconi’s immunity before the sentence can be implemented — a process that could take weeks or even months.
Berlusconi said earlier there should be no effect on the government even if he is convicted but diehard supporters are threatening to resign from parliament – a move that could trigger fresh elections.
The government was installed this year following a two-month deadlock between Berlusconi’s coalition and a leftist grouping led by the Democratic Party after February elections in which the two came neck-and-neck.
“Berlusconi is dead,” said Beppe Grillo, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement party. “His conviction is like the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989,” the firebrand leader wrote in a blog.
Guglielmo Epifani, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, said the sentence should be “respected, executed and implemented”.
The court also sent back to the court of appeals another part of Berlusconi’s sentence which would have condemned the 76-year-old three-time prime minister to a temporary ban from parliament.
“The court annuls the sentence of interdiction from public office and… declares irrevocable all other parts of the sentence,” judge Antonio Esposito said.
The case revolved around Berlusconi’s business empire Mediaset – the starting point for his first foray into politics in the early 1990s.
His tumultuous career has been constantly dogged by legal troubles which he says are politically motivated attacks by left-wing prosecutors. Thursday’s verdict was Berlusconi’s second and final appeal in the case, which first went to trial in 2006.
He is also appealing convictions in other cases for having sex with an underage prostitute, abusing his prime ministerial powers and leaking a police wiretap to damage a political rival.
Prosecutors have also filed charges alleging he bribed a senator to join his ranks in a move that helped bring down the government in 2008.
“I haven’t slept for a month. I wake up at night and stare at the ceiling, thinking about what they’ve done to me,” the media magnate said in an interview with Libero newspaper on Sunday.
“I will not go into exile. Nor will I accept being entrusted to social services, like a criminal who has to be reeducated,” he said.
Berlusconi has repeatedly been written off and bounced back in the past.
After being dramatically ousted from power in 2011 in a blaze of sex scandals and financial panic, he re-emerged with a powerful election campaign this year that won him a third of the vote.
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Great idea – similar laws in other countries. Should give people the right amount of time in between jobs to find their feet.
Or, maybe we could introduce a system of universal healthcare so that healthcare is accessible and affordable for everyone, and not just those who can afford insurance!
A yrs health insurance every 18 months from now on then
@Misanthrope: I take a break of 13 weeks every year when it comes up for renewal and I do not lose cover or waiting time.
You are allowed 13 weeks to shop about
@ryan3939: I should too but couldn’t be arsed. Going to start doing it now.
@ryan3939: How can you not lose cover if you take that 13 week break ? Do you mean that the insurance company will honour anything within those 13 weeks even if you haven’t paid you renewal ?
@Nosmo King: No, the current system is that, if you cancel a policy from today, you have 13 weeks from today to take up a policy again, before being slapped with waiting periods as a new customer.
So, if you cancel today, and in a month you find out that you need surgery soon, you can call up, set up a policy from the date of the call, and continue on as if nothing happened.
you can also backdate that 13 weeks if you want, but you do have to pay for the time.. which is fine, if you needed cover during the 13 weeks, but if you didn’t, then just setting up from the date of the call is a good option.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Thanks for that. I’m surprised that insurance companies of all businesses allow such an anomaly to exist.
@Nosmo King: I’d say they would say you knew about whatever illness it was and that it was a pre-existing condition so not covered, so basically you don’t have cover for the 13wks your not paying for
@Alison Sheppard: if you’ve completed your waiting periods your free and clear on that score.
@Nosmo King: Np, i spent 6 years in health insurance. This is something that was set out by the likes of the health inurance authority, in order to be fair to health insurance holders
That stamp duty is 444 per adult and 148 per child. 1184 for the typical 1 adult 2 kid family. Ridiculous really
@lavbeer: it’s disgraceful how much of it goes straight to the government. If the tax on the cost of the policies was reduced or removed, health insurance might be more affordable to most.
@lavbeer: but will the saving REALLY be passed on – it rarely is! Remains to be seen.
@cars: For the government health levy (this is the 444, rather than the separate lifetime community rating levy), most of that money actually goes to VHI.
The health levy goes into a pot, and is then divvied up between the insurers. VHI gets something like 80% of the pot, based on how many older (over 65) members they have, and the remainder is split between Laya and Irish Life Health.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: yea it does but it’s up to 50% of my premium which now generally is worthless.
@lavbeer: Totally agree. Its just under 50% for me, and the kicker is that i am with irish life health.. Yet i am still paying vhi a substantial amount, in essence.
The levy was introduced and set out this way, because of the fact that vhi was previously fulky government owned.
Nice to see some bits and pieces coming our way for a change.
What happens if you get sick during the break
@Dave barrett: you won’t have cover if your on a break, but means when you restart you won’t have waiting period again
Say what you will about our health service but our Health Insurance market is actually regulated quite fairly all things considered.
@ForeverFeel1ng: Is that why it goes up every year and is that why the insures never question a hospital bill which is mainly makey uppy in the first place? People in wards being charged for private rooms etc, that kind of regulation?
have your say