Word: berlusconi
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...combat such perceived persecution, Berlusconi has tested the bounds of decorous democratic conduct, including his allies' pushing a bill through Parliament last year that gave him and other top Italian officeholders immunity from prosecution. But since the Constitutional Court overturned that law in October, several criminal investigations into Berlusconi's business dealings have been reopened, with other new charges rumored to be looming...
...alas, Berlusconi is back to spending his downtime with a well-paid cadre of more than a dozen avvocati, who have been successful so far in keeping their biggest client clear of criminal convictions. Not that the lawyers have ever really gone away. Since the media baron first ran for office 15 years ago, his legal advisers have doubled as political consiglieri, key members of Parliament and even important Cabinet Ministers. Indeed, while some critics have spoken of Berlusconi's reign as a kind of sultanate of showgirls or government by gaffe, others have described it as a republic...
...longtime lawyer Cesare Previti served as Italian Defense Minister during Berlusconi's first term in 1994 before being convicted of corruption himself (and losing twice on appeal). During Berlusconi's second term (2001-06), Gaetano Pecorella, a former leftist, served as president of Parliament's Justice Commission, where he was instrumental in shepherding through new laws that helped shield Berlusconi from investigating magistrates...
Giovanni Sartori, a Columbia University professor of constitutional law, says the role Berlusconi's personal lawyers have played in his legislative agenda is yet another gargantuan conflict of interest to add to those related to his ownership of Italy's main private television stations. But by now, Sartori says, Berlusconi's lawyers have perfected the art of exploiting Italy's painfully slow justice system: many cases conclude without a final verdict because the statute of limitations has been reached. "It is more a mania than a necessity," Sartori says of Berlusconi's near obsession in battling magistrates. "He feels persecuted...
...Berlusconi's current point man is Nicolo Ghedini, a somber-faced, lanky 49-year-old criminal-defense attorney from the northern city of Padua, who has served in both the Italian Senate and the lower house of Parliament. Ghedini has continued to mount a grinding defense in the criminal cases, arguing in the Mills case that Berlusconi cannot be present in the Milan courtroom for the next several months because of time conflicts with his duties as Prime Minister. Ghedini has also spearheaded an increasingly aggressive legal strategy that has included several libel suits against opposition newspapers. He declared...