3 years for Berlusconi and Panama link man Lavtola

FORMER Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Italy-Panama go-between Valter Lavítola have each been sentenced to three years imprisonment for bribing a senator who facilitated the collapse of the government of Romano Prodi in 2008.

Lavítola, The former director of the newspaper L’Avanti, was charged with mediating the bribe. Lavítola is facing further charges in Rome for his role in the alleged $25 million bribery of Panamanian political leaders in the purchase of helicopters. Former president Ricardo Martinelli, described the trials as Italian “Soap Opera”.
The prosecution had asked for a prison sentence of five years for Berlusconi and four years and four months to Lavítola.
The Neapolitan criminal court judges, after several hours of deliberations, considered Berlusconi to be the perpetrator of the bribery. He did not attend the sentencing.
In the case of Berlusconi is expected to dodge jail because the statute of limitations will kick in as the expected appeal of his lawyers will eat up the time left
One of his defense lawyers, Niccol Ghedini, told the sentencing hearing that this is “unfair and unjustified” and added he is confident that the Court of Appeal will acquit him.

Lavítola, however, remains behind bars for his multiple convictions arising from other processes.
In late June when the Public Prosecutor made his jail requests, Berlusconi said the application of five years imprisonment against him was political persecution
Prosecutors felt that the tycoon managed to bring down the government of Prodi (2006-2008) to buy the vote of Senator Sergio De Gregorio, who left his party, Italy of Values, which was part of the government coalition, to join the then ranks of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom.
His vote and the other senators who also left the majority in the government eventually precipitated the fall of the Prodi executive during a vote in the Senate in 2008. He was succeeded by the third and final term of Berlusconi (2008-2011).
De Gregorio, confessed to having received a payment of $3.3 million and agreed to a sentence of one year and eight months in prison. Gregori also acknowledged the responsibility of Lavítola,as mediator in the alleged payment.
Prosecutors told the judges of the First Criminal Section that Berlusconi had intended to invest tens of millions of dollars to corrupt senators.
“It was an operation to subvert the democratic order. A dark page in Italian politics If the rust of corruption overwhelms the core of democracy, the danger is great…”
This corruption case comes at a time when Berlusconi, 79, has returned to the public stage after overcoming other accounts he had with Justice.
In February he fulfilled his sentence of one year of social work for the crime of tax fraud. The Supreme Court upheld his acquittal in March on charges of abuse of power and incitement to prostitution of minors in the so-called “Ruby case”