Silvio Berlusconi has been hospitalized this morning at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. The PDL leader is suffering from uveitis, an inflammation of the eyes. The news was released by the defense lawyers of the Cavaliere, Niccolò Ghedini and Piero Longo, who just yesterday had invoked legitimate impediment before the judges of the Criminal Court of Milan, where the hearing of the Ruby process to allow the prosecutor Ilda Boccassini to finish her indictment. In the proceedings Berlusconi is accused of extortion and child prostitution.
Boccassini he asked for the referral request to be rejected, stating that the alleged health problems "are not a legitimate absolute impediment".
For the magistrate, the fact that Berlusconi visited on 5, 6 and 7 March and that the first two medical certificates provided by his lawyers in recent days did not indicate any deterioration such as not to allow the former prime minister to expose himself in the light “represents an escalation that seems to have been made on purpose not to celebrate the hearing. Only in the last certificate dated yesterday does the doctor refer to the worsening of the conditions in case of failure to adhere to the indicated precautions. A serious doctor would have already indicated these risks in the first certificate".
Furthermore, according to the deputy prosecutor, the referral request is contradictory, because at first Ghedini and Longo had asked for the legitimate impediment due to political commitments, i.e. a meeting of the Pdl's presidency office in the morning and the meeting with Prime Minister Mario Monti in the afternoon. However, Berlusconi's defenders reiterated the request, accusing Boccassini of being animated "by the logic of suspicion".
Meanwhile, the judges have retired to the council chamber to decide whether or not to accept the request.
