ITALY-POLITICS: Berlusconi Faces Milan Corruption Investigation

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jorge Pina

ROME, Nov 22 1994 (IPS) - The Office of the Public Prosecutor of Milan Tuesday notified Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that he is under judicial investigation for the alleged offence of complicity in corruption.

In a communique the government the prosecutor confirmed that Berlusconi had received judicial notification.

A judicial notification is part of regular Italian criminal procedure through which magistrates communicate to a determined person that he is officially under investigation, so that he can appoint a defence lawyer.

The Milanese judges invited Berlusconi to present himself to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Milan “as a subject who de facto used to control the activities of companies in the Fininvest group” — according to the text of the judicial notification.

The Fininvest group, the property of Berlusconi, is the second largest in Italy after Fiat, with a turnover of some seven billion dollars a year.

This is the first judicial notification against a prime minister in office sent by the Milanese judges of ‘Clean Hands’ fame, who for the past three years have been investigating political corruption in Italy.

So far two former prime ministers, the Socialist Bettino Craxi (1983-87) and the Christian Democrat Giulio Andreotti, who was seven times head of the government and a member of the cabinets of the 52 governments which have succeeded one another since 1948.

A judicial notification does not mean guilt, but must be considered as a guarantee accorded by the law to ensure that the person involved knows that he is under investigation and can take the measures he considers pertinent, noted Roman Deputy Public Prosecutor Margharita Gerunda.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told the press in Naples that “a judicial notification is not a condemnation, so I do not see how this can influence the credibility of the government in its fight against organised crime”.

This week Maroni is attending an international conference in Naples on organised crime which is being chaired by Berlusconi as representative of the host country.

The head of the Progressive opposition group in the Chamber of Deputies, Luigi Berlinguer, said that the notification is “a technical fact. Justice must take its course, and we are respectful of this”.