Italian Appeals Court Overturns Berlusconi Conviction On Underage Sex Charges
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has had his June 2013 conviction on underage sex charges overturned by an Italian appeals court:
ROME — An appeals court in Milan on Friday overturned the conviction of the former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, for paying for sex with a minor, and revoked his seven-year prison sentence and a lifetime ban from holding public office.
Mr. Berlusconi, 77, was found guilty just over a year ago of paying for sex with a young woman named Karima el-Mahroug, nicknamed “Ruby Heart-Stealer,” when she was still a minor, and abusing his office to cover it up.
He appealed the conviction, and the Milanese court ruled in his favor, dealing Mr. Berlusconi a legal victory that strengthens his waning position within the Italian political arena.
The former prime minister was not present in court on Friday; he was in Cesano Boscone, about seven miles outside Milan, at a nursing home where he is serving a year of community service assisting Alzheimer’s patients one day a week, a sentence he received in a separate conviction for tax fraud. Mr. Berlusconi left the care home without speaking to reporters, but he rolled down the window of his car to shake the hand of a supporter who yelled out: “Justice is done!”
On his Facebook page, Mr. Berlusconi wrote on Friday, “Only those who were close to me during these years know what I have suffered as a result of this unfair and ignominious accusation.” Courtroom testimony had focused on the raunchy “bunga bunga” parties, involving many aspiring starlets, at the home of Mr. Berlusconi, a media mogul and the leader of the Forza Italia party.
Stating that he was “deeply moved,” Mr. Berlusconi also uncharacteristically thanked the Italian judiciary — an institution he has repeatedly attacked over the years as the perpetrators of unrelenting legal persecution. The ruling “gave a confirmation of what I have always said: that the vast majority of Italian magistrates do their job quietly, with admirable impartiality and rigor.”
Though the legal victory vindicated Mr. Berlusconi, it is unlikely to herald his return to power.
“I think Berlusconi is basically out of the political game,” said Sergio Fabbrini, director of the school of government at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, citing the former prime minister’s age and the fact that he was serving community service and was standing trial in another court in Naples. Friday’s acquittal “is a specific and contingent success for him, but it isn’t a comeback. There are too many things on his shoulders that make it impossible for him to play a senior role in Italian politics.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. After all, this is Italy we’re talking about.
He’s BBBAAAACK!!!
(cue spooky music)
The Newspaper of Record can’t be bothered to tell use WHY the conviction was overturned?
He seems nice.
It’s clear that Scalia is wasted on the US Supreme Court. This is the judicial system he was born for.
@Timothy Watson:
Yeah, that was my reaction. Was it thrown out on procedural grounds? Chain of evidence? The girl turns out to be 47 years old? Were both the sex crime and the coverup thrown out, or does Italian law distinguish them?
It kinda matters.
@Timothy Watson:
According to The Guardian, the conviction was overturned because the court ruled that no crimes had been committed.
@grumpy realist:
Look very closely at his hairline. He appears to dye his scalp as well as his locks.
@CSK: Heh heh. That’s, that’s just swell.