The gift to the Knight: Meloni withdraws the civil action of the executive in the Ruby ter trial

Palazzo Chigi has given a mandate to the State Attorney’s Office to withdraw the civil action in the Ruby Ter trial, in which Berlusconi is accused of judicial corruption. The move is unprecedented in terms of modality and timing. Berlusconi had been calling for it for some time as a further step in his “judicial rehabilitation”. Meloni had resisted. Until the last day. Sentencing is scheduled for tomorrow. Today the State Attorney’s Office will deposit the waiver, guaranteeing the leader of Forza Italia, in the event of conviction, to save up to 10 million euros, requested by the Attorney’s Office as compensation for the damages caused to the State by his conduct .

The trial affair is nothing but a trickle of the scandal born over ten years ago from the “elegant dinners” that Berlusconi organized in Arcore with bunga-bunga-based friends and escorts. Berlusconi had been tried for his relationship with Karima el-Mahroug, a Moroccan minor known as “Ruby Rubacuori”, for extortion and child prostitution. He had defended himself by saying that he intervened because he was convinced that she was the granddaughter of the then Egyptian president Mubarak, as well as an adult. Sentenced in first instance to 7 years, acquitted on appeal and Cassation.

The trickles arise from the sentence of the first court which held that the witnesses summoned by Berlusconi to confirm the innocent nature of the “elegant dinners” were mendacious. The investigations had documented substantial and regular payments by the Knight to the witnesses. Hence the trials for corruption in judicial documents.

Some positions have been diverted for territorial jurisdiction in other courts, including Siena and Rome. Both trials ended in acquittals. In particular, in Rome, Berlusconi’s co-defendant was Mariano Apicella, a chansonnier he made famous with records, concerts and television performances.

In Milan, after six years of trial, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has asked for convictions for 28 of the 29 defendants. Six years for Berlusconi, 5 for Ruby, the same for about twenty girls. In the indictment, the prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano defined Berlusconi as “the sultan” and the girls as “odalisque sex slaves” of whom she “had bought silences and lies” with money and real estate.

The Presidency of the Council, identified as the offended party by the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office, had filed a civil action. Represented by the State Attorney’s Office, it played an active procedural role, also confirmed in the last hearing on 25 January by the reply of the lawyer Gabriella Vanadia, who defined judicial corruption as “a particularly serious and offensive crime”. The Attorney’s office asked for compensation of 10 million euros.

Thanks to Melon’s move, the request declines. The note from Palazzo Chigi provides two reasons: the political nature of the civil action decided in 2017 by the Gentiloni government and the non-existence of the charges against Berlusconi, given the acquittals collected in Milan and Rome. From a legal point of view, the first argument is very weak: it would have been bizarre for the Prime Minister not to join a civil party in a trial in which a former prime minister is accused of judicial corruption for conduct committed during his mandate.

The second is at least controversial. Berlusconi’s lawyers naturally valued the acquittals in the other trials. The Milan Public Prosecutor considers the cases to be different: if for Apicella there is no certain proof that the money transfers from the Cavaliere were corruption and not remuneration for musical services, to which other services can those to the escorts be attributed in periods following the Arcorian dinners?

Moreover, the filing of a civil action does not involve charges in the event of the accused’s acquittal, but only possible compensation benefits in the event of a conviction. So the choice is purely political, and in fact Palazzo Chigi claims it as “the new government is a direct expression of the popular will”.