Thursday, July 09, 2015



Guilty

Silvio Berlusconi has been convicted of bribery:

Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been found guilty of bribing a senator in 2006 in an attempt to bring down the then centre-left government.

A Naples court sentenced Berlusconi to three years in jail and banned him from holding public office for five years.

[...]

The billionaire was accused of giving 3m euros (£2.5m; $4m) in 2006 to Sergio De Gregorio, then a senator from the anti-corruption Italy of Values party, to switch to Berlusconi's People of Freedom party and thus undermine the government of the time.


Unfortunately he won't actually be going to jail because Italy's crazy statute of limitations law will kick in before the appeal period expires, effectively halting the trial. So he'll be convicted, but not punished. And then Italy wonders why it has a corruption problem...