More troubles await Italy's embattled prime minister |
An appeals
court in Milan has ordered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's media
holding company to pay damages worth more than half a billion euros to a
business rival.
A Milan
appeals court ruled Saturday that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's
media holding company, Fininvest, must pay compensation totaling 560 million
euros ($800 million) to rival media group, Compagnie Industirali Riunite (CIR),
after Fininvest bribed a judge to approve a company takeover.
The verdict
is the latest installment in a long judicial tussle that goes back to 1991,
when Fininvest was first accused of bribing a judge to win a takeover battle
for one of Italy's leading publishing houses, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.
Fininvest
won control of Mondadori at the expense of CIR thanks to a ruling at the time
by a Rome judge, who was later sentenced and sent to prison for corruption.
Saturday's
appeals court decision, however, reduced by a quarter the original compensation
judgment of a lower court asking for 750 million euros in damages.
Next round
of appeals is certain
Mondadori, a leading Italian publisher, was a big prize |
Berlusconi
this week tried to pass a measure that would have suspended the penalty, but
had to hastily backpedal due to a lack of support from his coalition partners
and a public outcry.
Fininvest's
chairwoman, Marina Berlusconi, said in a statement that the company would now
take the case to Italy's top appeals court.
"We
are certain that we are in the right and we must believe our reasons will
eventually be recognized," she said, adding that this was the latest
episode in years of "wild aggression" against her father.
The
conservative prime minister has repeatedly accused Italy's judiciary of
plotting against him.
CIR
chairman Carlo De Benedetti owns the left-of-center newspaper, La Repubblica,
one of Berlusconi's fiercest critics.
Author: Gregg Benzow
(dpa, AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler
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