Court acquits Berlusconi of corruption charges

MILAN - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has escaped conviction in a major corruption trial after a court invoked a statute of limitations that meant time had run out to sentence him for bribery.

Berlusconi welcomed the nuanced verdict, which brought down the curtain on a trial that lasted almost five years, saying he had expected not to be condemned.

"I was right to have been completely at peace about this because I was fully aware that I didn't do anything wrong," he said in a statement in Rome after being informed of the ruling in Italy's financial capital.

The ruling, read to a packed court in Milan's imposing Palace of Justice, implied that the 68-year-old Berlusconi was guilty of one count of corruption of a Rome judge in 1991 but could not be sentenced because of the time limit.

The court then acquitted Berlusconi of a second charge of bribing judges.

Opposition politicians said the verdict left a shadow over Berlusconi's ability to govern because the court had not declared him fully innocent and had used a legal mechanism that prevented sentencing.

"Once more people are playing with words in order to defraud public opinion. The statute of limitations is not a declaration of innocence but it presumes guilt," said opposition politician Antonio di Pietro, a former star anti-graft magistrate.

"It is important to remember that only the length of time that has passed prohibited the judges from ruling on the merits of the case," he said.

He and other opposition politicians called on Berlusconi to step down.

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES

Berlusconi, a billionaire media mogul and the first serving Italian prime minister to stand in a criminal trial, was accused of bribing the Rome judiciary in the late 1980s and again in 1991 to win favourable rulings for his Fininvest company.

The prime minister always maintained his innocence and said he was the victim of a politically motivated legal witchhunt. State prosecutors said he had authorised massive bribes and had demanded an eight-year prison term.

However, under Italian law, a court can accept "mitigating circumstances" for a defendant with a clean criminal record and halve the usual 15-year statute of limitations.

As the charge dated back to 1991, Berlusconi was thus automatically saved from a potentially devastating verdict.

Berlusconi's lawyer Gaetano Pecorella told reporters that the prime minister would nonetheless appeal the ruling and seek a full acquittal in both counts of corruption.

While Berlusconi has faced several investigations and trials into corruption charges tied to his business dealings, the bribery charge was the most serious case brought against him.

It revolved around accusations that Fininvest paid off Rome judges to win a takeover battle for state-owned food firm SME.

In a twin trial that ended last year, a Milan court found one of Berlusconi's former lawyers, Cesare Previti, guilty of bribing judge Renato Squillante - not over SME but to secure a favourable legal climate for Fininvest in Rome legal circles.

Previti was handed a five-year prison term and Squillante an eight-year term. Both men are appealing.

- REUTERS