Italy’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday approved a reform bill that could cut the length of many trials, including a bribery case against embattled Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested outside the parliament, accusing Berlusconi of tailoring the law in his own interest and claiming that key cases would now be snuffed out.
The bill was approved by 314 votes for and 296 against. It will have to go to the senate for a final vote, where Berlusconi has a stronger majority than in the lower house.
If approved, the bill would limit the timespan of the verdict to within three years from the start of a trial in cases punishable by a prison sentence of 10 years or less. Older cases would be scrapped.
The amendment would wipe out a case in which Berlusconi is accused of paying former British lawyer David Mills US$600,000 to provide false testimony about his business dealings.
The trial, which had been temporarily suspended last year due to a short-lived immunity law approved by Berlusconi, is due to run until January or February next year.
If the bill is approved, it would bring the bribery trial to an abrupt end before sentencing.
The head of the Italian magistrate’s association, Luca Palamara, described the outcome as “a defeat for the state.”
Opposition parties have lashed out at the government’s claims that the bill — and the broader program it is part of — will bring about a much needed reform of the country’s doddering and dysfunctional judicial system.
“It’s up to us now to make people understand the disgrace of this measure, which shows absolute contempt for the country’s real problems,” said Pier Bersani, head of the opposition Democratic Party, according to Ansa news agency.
“It’s the umpteenth law to save Berlusconi from his trials,” said Antonio Di Pietro, head of the opposition Italy of Values party and one of Berlusconi’s most strident critics.
Protesters rallied outside parliament before the vote to campaign for justice for the 308 victims of the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila and the 29 people killed in a train accident in Viareggio the same year.
They said the reform could end trials linked to responsibility over the two disasters.
“I lost both my parents in the Viareggio accident,” 35-year-old protester Luca Bonuccelli said.
“If this law is passed, it will be as if they have been killed twice, because I will never get justice. I’m really angry and hold it against Berlusconi,” he said.
“The carriages were made by one foreign company, the rails by another. It is therefore taking a long time for the trial to come to a conclusion,” he said.
Residents from the badly damaged town of L’Aquila, where poor quality cement has been blamed for the collapse of hundreds of buildings including a student residence, held signs reading: “Murdered at the students’ house April 6, 2009.”
The government has insisted that only 0.2 percent of cases will be affected by the new law.
SUCCESSOR?
In related news, Berlusconi has named a Sicilian minister as his likely successor. Speaking to foreign correspondents at a dinner on Tuesday night, Berlusconi said he would not stand at the next general election in 2013 and indicated that 40-year-old Justice Minister Angelino Alfano was the person to whom he intended entrusting his party.
The dinner was held on an off-the-record basis, but a detailed account of the proceedings was leaked to Ansa and pubished early on Wednesday. Additional reports appeared subsequently in the Italian media.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in