The Court of Appeal of Milan confirms the sentence for Silvio Berlusconi in the context of the Mediaset trial. In the first instance, the Knight was sentenced to four years for tax fraud, with a five-year ban from holding public office.
After the no to the suspension of the appeal process on the alleged irregularities in the buying and selling of TV rights by the Biscione (as requested by Berlusconi's defense), the judges retired to the council chamber and at 19 pm issued the sentence.
The three-year prison sentence for US producer Frank Agrama was also confirmed. Instead, the president of Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, and two other people were acquitted.
The last act of the trial had been the speeches of the defenders of the former managers Gabriella Galetto and Daniele Lorenzano. The latter had specified that Berlusconi's role within the company had been "active in the XNUMXs, then slowly faded away and ceased before he entered politics". He then defined the accusations made against the PDL leader as "unfounded" and declared that he had "confidence" in his acquittal.
Now the Knight will appeal to the Court of Cassation, but with a few more hopes, because just today the CSM, by a majority, appointed Giorgio Santacroce as first President of the Court, to whom in the past relations of closeness to Cesare Previti (ex Berlusconi's lawyer).
Not only. The request made by the Knight's lawyers and rejected by the judges was to suspend the hearing pending the Consulta decide on the attribution conflict raised in March 2010 regarding the order with which the Court had denied the postponement of a hearing for legitimate impediment. If the Constitutional Court agrees with Berlusconi's lawyers, the whole procedure could be called into question, including the trial of first instance.
