Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: silvio all'estero :Italian legislation put on hold as 'save Previti' bill comes to vote

Italian legislation put on hold as 'save Previti' bill comes to vote
By Tony Barber in Rome
Published: October 3 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 3 2005 03:00
Italy's centre-right government will put on a rare display of unity this  
week and try to pass a law overturning the conviction on corruption  
charges of a political ally of Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister.
 
All other legislation has been put on hold so that parliament can vote on  
a bill that will cut the statute of limitations for certain crimes,  
including the corruption of which Cesare Previti was found guilty in 2003.
The government's determination to help Mr Previti stands in stark contrast  
to its inaction on other fronts, including the crisis surrounding Antonio  
Fazio, the Bank of Italy governor whom prosecutors are investigating for  
suspected abuse of office.
Even a controversial measure to change Italy's electoral system is being  
delayed to make room for the parliamentary vote on what the centre-left  
opposition calls the "save Previti" bill.
"Laws designed for individuals must be absolutely abolished. We have to  
rise up and fight this system," Romano Prodi, the opposition leader, told  
a rally yesterday in Palermo.
Mr Previti, 70, who was once Mr Berlusconi's lawyer and defence minister,  
was sentenced in April 2003 to 11 years in prison for bribing judges. He  
maintains his innocence, but the Milan court that convicted him called it  
the biggest corruption case in post-1945 Italy.
An appeals court reduced his sentence last May to seven years. If  
parliament passes the statute of limitations bill, Mr Previti's conviction  
will be annulled.
Mr Berlusconi and his supporters say the Previti affair shows leftwing  
judges and prosecutors are perverting judicial procedures in order to  
destroy the reputation of the premier and his allies.
But the opposition views the "save Previti" bill as a breathtaking example  
of how the government, whatever its internal divisions on other policies,  
will always rally round to help Mr Berlusconi or his friends when it comes  
to legal matters.
"It's incredible," said Antonio Di Pietro, a centre-left politician and  
former prosecutor who helped expose vast corruption in Italian public life  
in the early 1990s. "When a law concerns the safety of members of the  
government majority, they succeed in record time in passing the relevant  
measure."
Mr Berlusconi himself was cleared last week of charges of false accounting  
because his government had passed a law in 2001 that decriminalised the  
offence.
The bill changing the statute of limitations is being rushed through  
parliament because the government has a busy legislative agenda ahead of  
national elections due by next May.
Above all, it must steer Italy's 2006 budget through parliament. But it  
also wants to pass the changes to the electoral system, constitutional  
reforms, and a vital measure to strengthen Italy's financial markets  
regulation after the accounting fraud discovered in 2003 at the Parmalat  
food company.
This last measure also includes proposals to reform the Bank of Italy,  
whose reputation is suffering from the Fazio affair.
A parliamentary vote on the post-Parmalat reforms is possible on Wednesday  
or Thursday - after the vote on the "save Previti" bill.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2969446a-33aa-11da-bd49-00000e2511c8.html

 wrote:

Più sputtanati di così non è possibile.
Questa tragedia, dico di un popolo che sopporta simili schiaffoni alla
sua dignità da parte di un bastardo piduista colluso con la mafia da
30 anni tramite Dellutri, ci porta dritto al crollo del made in Italy.
Perchè il made in Italy vive amolto della buona reputazione
dell'Italia, del suo buon gusto e della sua civiltà
Lo spettacolo davvero miserabile che stiamo dando è nefasto.
e.
Leggete "L'amico degli amici" - tutte le prove che Dellutri è mafioso e fece da tramite per 30 anni tra Cosa Nostra e Berlusconi.