Berlusconi’s legal woes look set to grow

(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) – Rome, November 22 – Three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi’s legal woes seem destined to thicken Friday, after an effort to delay a vote on ejecting him from parliament was quashed and prosecutors readied a probe into perjury allegations in the trial that found him guilty of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his office to cover it up. Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso rejected a last-ditch appeal from his supporters to postpone next week’s vote on stripping the media mogul of his Senate seat. The vote on the Senate floor is scheduled Wednesday following his conviction for tax fraud this summer, his first ever binding sentence in nearly two decades of legal entanglements.

Berlusconi, who appears likely to lose the vote, has been fighting hard to keep his seat. Supporters had argued that a Senate panel, which earlier this month organized next week’s vote, has lost credibility because one member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) had posted his thoughts on the process on social media during proceedings. That, said Berlusconi supporters, threw the entire Senate vote into question and they demanded a delay. But Grasso ruled against their argument, saying that the vote will proceed as scheduled on November 27. “There can be no recognized grounds for adjourning the meeting,” Grasso wrote in a formal response to Berlusconi’s supporters. Sandro Bondi, a Senator from Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia, called Grasso “partisan”, a title that has leftist connotations in Italy linked to the partisan resistance to Fascism during World War II. Media tycoon Berlusconi, 77, was sentenced to four years for fraud on film rights at his Mediaset empire but three years were lopped off because of an amnesty. He is set to serve the remaining year doing community service but has vowed to stay at the helm of the center right, leading a resuscitated version of his first party, Forza Italia, which was relaunched over the weekend as pro-government doves left Berlusconi’s ranks to form the New Center Right (NCD).

Berlusconi has said that he fears being at the mercy of Italian prosecutors if he is ejected from parliament and loses his immunity from arrest. Berlusconi says the tax-fraud sentence is the result of a campaign by left-wing magistrates to persecute him for political reasons.

He has been indicted on charges of bribing a Senator to switch political sides, and is also appealing a one-year sentence for involvement in the publication of an illegally obtained wiretap, and a seven-year sentence for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power to cover it up. Regarding the latter case, Milan prosecutors are already preparing to open a probe into alleged false testimony throughout the investigation and proceedings. On Thursday the court accused Berlusconi of paying witnesses in the written judgement of its June verdict.

But before they explore those accusations in an open probe, prosecutors are awaiting the written judgements to be issued next month in a related case against those accused of procuring prostitutes for the ex-premier’s ‘bunga bunga’ sex parties at his villa in Arcore, outside Milan. Among those expected to be probed are numerous young women who attended those parties as well as Maria Rosaria Rossi, a Senator from Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party, and Berlusconi himself.