How Berlusconi will save himself from Mills trial

Berlusconi with his lawyer and mp Ghedini The Mills trial is a case where there are little mysteries, although many TVs and Italian newspapers have said little or nothing about it, because affects the supreme leader. The British lawyer Mills has been sentenced to 4 and half years of prison for corruption in the first instance and appeal: he would had taken money to lie to judges, to the benefit of Berlusconi, in two different trials.

He had information which could lead to a conviction of the current prime minister in these processes and he lied to save him, upon payment of $ 600,000. Indeed Berlusconi, who in 1998 was sentenced in first instance and appeal for 2 years and 9 months for having paid bribes to the italian financial police, to close both eyes in the Fininvest tax audits from 1989 to 1994, was acquitted in 2001 in Cassation (third grade).
In the all-Iberian trial Berlusconi was accused of having transferred huge sums of money abroad for tax evasion and to fund for 22 billion italian liras between 1991 and 1992, the PSI of Bettino Craxi (who had helped Berlusconi to create his television empire, making it legal in 1990 with the Mammi law). The All-Iberian trial was divided in two between illegal financing and false accounting. The first ended in 2000 with a stature of limitation in the third instance court, although Berlusconi was convicted in 1998 in first grade to 2 years and 4 months in prison and a fine of 10 billion liras. The second ended in 2005 when an ad hoc law of the Berlusconi government eliminated the crime of which he was accused. Today we know that these trials have not arrived at a conviction of Berlusconi thanks to the false testimony of Mills, as well as the ad hoc laws of the premier. Mills is in fact the man who created a series of offshore companies for the illegal transactions of the Fininvest group, for tax evasion, fraud to shareholders, illegal political funding, false accounting, purchase of television rights. Mills was convicted of taking 600,000 dollars for lying to prosecutors. The sentence against Mills ruled that the briber was Berlusconi. In light of all this the trial, if coming to the end, most likely would end with a condemnation of Berlusconi for this long series of illegal activities.
The premier had sought first to stop the trial with the Alfano law, later rejected by the Constitutional Court. These days the debate was suspended until 27 February pending the final ruling of the third instance court on Mills on the 25. The Cassation could decide that Mills was guilty only of simple corruption and not corruption in judicial acts, because it would have received 600,000 dollars later, and not before, false statements in the trials of Berlusconi. In this case the crime is already subject to statute of limitation and Berlusconi would be acquitted for the umpteenth time. But even if they do not, pending the ruling and the reasons, the parliament could approve the decree on the short trial, and the statute of limitation would kick in anyway.
But in practice is really very difficult to see a condemnation of Berlusconi while he is head of government, with all the legislative instruments that can be used to avoid it. Berlusconi was in fact convicted several times. For false testimony about his affiliation with the P2, but saved by an amnesty. Sentenced in 1998 for bribing the financial police, but acquitted on third instance in 2001. Sentenced again in 1998 for illegal financing (All-Iberian1) but saved by statute of limitation in 1999 and 2001 on second and third instance. It would have been sentenced for aggravated false accounting (All-Iberian2), but an ad hoc law of 2002 eliminated the crime. Ditto for false accounting from the payments in black at Milan soccer team (Lentini trial). Statute of limitation also for corruption in the Lodo Mondadori, when a court in Rome was corrupt to give the company into the hands of Berlusconi.
An ordinary citizen would have already been convicted several times, but the prime minister in office has some tools in hand. Also, when the premier is in power or is there a climate of underhand dealing with the opposition, as today, somehow he always manages to escape justice.
And so we must expect that the Mills trial too, although a sentence has already indicated Berlusconi as the corrupter, will end as usual with nothing done. It happens when a man on trial also has the ability to make laws. In civilized countries would be called a shameful conflict of interest. Here in Italy instead they call it in other ways. The premier call it the "laws for freedom" (his own). And most of the opposition calls it "a dialogue".