Italy corruption trial with links to Panama looming

PANAMA’S government will be front and center in an Italian corruption trial involving $20 million in bribes, that should begin before year’s end.

In June this year, the Rome prosecutor closed the investigation in the case of international corruption , in which are accused Valter Lavítola a former high roller in Panama government circles, and Paolo Pozzessere , former head of the Finmeccanica colossus

On Friday, October4 La Prensa published an interview with the prestigious Italian prosecutor Paolo Ielo.
The next step, after completing the research process that began in 2011, on behalf of prosecutors in Naples ( Italy) – is to determine what sentence will be asked for by the state prosecutor involved in this case and to set a date for the preliminary hearing .
Italian criminal law determines that, in general, the maximum term that can pass between the completion of the investigation and the trial date is six months , said an office of the Court of Rome.
This means that before the end of this year a trial will be convened .
Prosecutors in Rome have carried out a long, complex and tangled investigation into the alleged diversion of $20 million in bribes , " whose recipients include several political exponents of the Panamanian government , some not identified until thetrial – covertly and hidden anyway ," says the report of research findings .
 Lavítola has been is investigated since mid-2011 . That same year were leaked to the Italian press wiretaps implicating him with corrupt Panamanian officials , who repeatedly denied having received any bribe says La Prensa.
The investigations include alleged commissions paid to Lavítola by Finmeccanica , following the sale of supplies to the Government of Panama , valued at $250 million , and the purchase of a helicopter for President Ricardo Martinelli.
On October 23, Lavítola plans to hand to the judges of one of the trial’s nine processes , a statement that suggests the possibility that another investigation be opened over the donating of a Panama hospital , promised in 2009 by former Prime Minister Berlusconi who, after a recent conviction for tax fraud,is facing expulsion from Italy’s parliament.