Berlusconi judged by a holiday tribunal

Tuesday, 30 July 2013. In order to avoid statute of limitations, a holiday tribunal is going to judge Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset tax fraud case.

Silvio Berlusconi; they might get me, at last...

Berlusconi's tax evasion case is the eighth proceeding to be dealt with by the Sezione feriale della Cassazione (Cassation's Holiday Section? Beachwear instead of gowns? Nicole Minetti could be interested in taking part to it...), starting today.

Why did the court decide to rule about this case in the middle of summer? It is made on purpose – say Berlusconi's lawyers – to make sure that the statute of limitation that won't declare null and void the case (or a part of it) in September. Good point.


The Italian media tycoon is charged with tax fraud in a complicated case regarding his mass media company Mediaset, TV royalties, the US producer Frank Agrama, and a few more. No sex, no women, no under-age prostitutes this time, apparently.

The amount of money we are talking about is a bit more than 7m euro (about 6m British pound or 9.3m US dollar), missing from the accounts of 2002 and 2003.

Silvio Berlusconi: I will not run away!

Mr Berlusconi said that during the same period he paid hundreds of millions to the Italian treasury and he is currently paying 36m euro in alimony to his former wife Veronica Lario, it would have been pointless and silly to risk his career for such a tad stash.

Apart form that, in that period he was a prime minister, did not have time to deal with such tiny details like royalties, contracts, budget or money. He had a country to run (and a few bunga-bunga parties to organise).

Anyhow, leftist judges could consider stupidity an aggravating circumstance, some reckon.

If sentenced, Silvio Berlusconi could face both a jail sentence and a heavy five-year ban on holding public office, which could end the entrepreneur turned into politician political life.

The ex-prime minister stated that he will not seek exile – like his former mentor Bettino Craxi did when he fell from grace in the wake of Clean Hands scandal (Mani Pulite) – surely not in an Arab country (as good old Bettino, as he fled Italy to travel to Hammamet, Tunisia), where there could be limitations to his joyful lifestyle and women usually don't dress the way Silvio prefers (Ruby the Heart Stealer - aka Karima El Mahroug - does dress that way, but she is not living in his country, Morocco). 

We are looking forward to seeing how it ends.