By 314 votes to 296 against, the Chamber of Deputies has approved in the middle of a big fight in the House and in Parliament Square, the law called the Prescription shortly. Designed by the prime minister's lawyers, the rule will shelve fulminating Mills case, which is in trial phase, in which Silvio Berlusconi was accused of bribing a court witness, and terminate in a few months the case Mediaset (tax evasion), plus at least 6,500 annual processes, as calculated by the government itself.
The "disguised amnesty" as the opposition has been baptized shall be endorsed in the Senate, where Berlusconi enjoys a large majority. Its main effect is to cut by 10% the time limitations for crimes in cases where defendants have not previously received any sentence. If until now a crime punishable by six years imprisonment prescribed to seven and a half years from now will expire six months earlier.
The Mills case, which was prescribed in the fall, fall into a dead end in May. Berlusconi will escape and first-degree conviction was taken for sure, since his British lawyer David Mills, was tried alone and convicted by the Supreme Court, which has established that he had been bribed by Mr Berlusconi, although it said prescribed crime.
"There is no law ad personam" he said Berlusconi on Tuesday night during a dinner acquittal tones with a group of foreign correspondents. "It's adapt to the European Union, Italy has fined hundreds of millions of euros for the delay of the judges to close the proceedings." This is a part of the truth, an excuse invented on the fly to give a patina of legitimacy to the rule.
The new law states in effect that the trials of offenses punishable by less than ten years' imprisonment may only last for six years (three for the first degree, two for the appeal, and one-half in the Supreme Court). But the minister of Justice, Angelino Alfano has recognized that the average length of criminal proceedings is already four years.
In addition, the core of the legislation is the requirement cut, which is estimated associations of judges will no justice to thousands of victims, and thousands of street criminals. The Government has tried to minimize its impact by saying that affect only 0.2% of trials esperame sentence.
The opposition Democrat said that if the impact is so limited, the Board should explain why Parliament has been paralyzed for weeks to get through. In nearly eleven years at the helm of the country, Berlusconi has approved 29 laws and sludge of immunity considered 'ad personam', which have helped to stop or get rid of 28 processes.
"It is normal that some laws affect me also to me," Berlusconi quipped, "but that is because I have judges communists always tried ridiculously to the idea of eliminating the policy." The real substance of the law was clear on the presence in parliament for several days, the entire Government, with the filibuster to the death of an opposition outraged, and protests, before the seat of Parliament, several thousand people associations of citizens and victims of some of the processes that are at risk of ending up dead letter.
Yesterday, the anti-Mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso, said that "the law seems to have been intended to kill thousands of processes." Among these, highlights several particularly bloody. According to the opposition, the tragedy of the earthquake fault of L'Aquila (198 dead), the Viareggio train crash (39 victims), and hundreds of prosecutions for white collar crime with tens of thousands of investors ruined as the bankruptcy of Parmalat Cirio the close without judicial truth and reparation to victims.
"Shame", "mafia", "have adopted a pardon playing with our grief." The cries of the protesters to Montecitorio have resonated with special fury. It was clear once again that in Italy not all are equal before the law. 
The "disguised amnesty" as the opposition has been baptized shall be endorsed in the Senate, where Berlusconi enjoys a large majority. Its main effect is to cut by 10% the time limitations for crimes in cases where defendants have not previously received any sentence. If until now a crime punishable by six years imprisonment prescribed to seven and a half years from now will expire six months earlier.
The Mills case, which was prescribed in the fall, fall into a dead end in May. Berlusconi will escape and first-degree conviction was taken for sure, since his British lawyer David Mills, was tried alone and convicted by the Supreme Court, which has established that he had been bribed by Mr Berlusconi, although it said prescribed crime.
"There is no law ad personam" he said Berlusconi on Tuesday night during a dinner acquittal tones with a group of foreign correspondents. "It's adapt to the European Union, Italy has fined hundreds of millions of euros for the delay of the judges to close the proceedings." This is a part of the truth, an excuse invented on the fly to give a patina of legitimacy to the rule.
The new law states in effect that the trials of offenses punishable by less than ten years' imprisonment may only last for six years (three for the first degree, two for the appeal, and one-half in the Supreme Court). But the minister of Justice, Angelino Alfano has recognized that the average length of criminal proceedings is already four years.
In addition, the core of the legislation is the requirement cut, which is estimated associations of judges will no justice to thousands of victims, and thousands of street criminals. The Government has tried to minimize its impact by saying that affect only 0.2% of trials esperame sentence.
The opposition Democrat said that if the impact is so limited, the Board should explain why Parliament has been paralyzed for weeks to get through. In nearly eleven years at the helm of the country, Berlusconi has approved 29 laws and sludge of immunity considered 'ad personam', which have helped to stop or get rid of 28 processes.
"It is normal that some laws affect me also to me," Berlusconi quipped, "but that is because I have judges communists always tried ridiculously to the idea of eliminating the policy." The real substance of the law was clear on the presence in parliament for several days, the entire Government, with the filibuster to the death of an opposition outraged, and protests, before the seat of Parliament, several thousand people associations of citizens and victims of some of the processes that are at risk of ending up dead letter.
Yesterday, the anti-Mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso, said that "the law seems to have been intended to kill thousands of processes." Among these, highlights several particularly bloody. According to the opposition, the tragedy of the earthquake fault of L'Aquila (198 dead), the Viareggio train crash (39 victims), and hundreds of prosecutions for white collar crime with tens of thousands of investors ruined as the bankruptcy of Parmalat Cirio the close without judicial truth and reparation to victims.
"Shame", "mafia", "have adopted a pardon playing with our grief." The cries of the protesters to Montecitorio have resonated with special fury. It was clear once again that in Italy not all are equal before the law.
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