Silvio Berlusconi suspends his own trial

Silvio Berlusconi suspends his own trial

www.telegraph.co.uk

Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of "disfiguring" Italian democracy for personal advantage after passing a law that will see 100,000 criminal trials – including his own – suspended.
In what was described as a "dark day" in Italian history, the nation's Senate voted to freeze for a year all trials which began before June 2002 and which carry possible sentences of fewer than 10 years.

The law covers trials for offences including manslaughter, theft, kidnapping, grievous bodily harm, extortion, fraud and corruption.

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I'm a bit confused about what is going on over in Italy right now. I recently posted another thread about them placing 2,500 troops on the streets over the next six months in an effort to combat crime. Now today I see them suspending 100,000 trials over offences including 'manslaughter, theft, kidnapping, grievous bodily harm, extortion, fraud and corruption'.

On one hand they seem to be interested in curbing crime, yet on the other hand they seem to be completely dismissing it. On the surface it would appear that Berlusconi is merely attempting to save his own ass from prosecution, but dismissing 100,000 trials in the process would seem to be a bit of overkill would it not? I can't help wondering what ulterior motive might be in play here.

www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hey everyone deserves a mulligan now and then . :p

But seriously is this guy really in a position to do this?

You act surprised?

the new right coalition in the Italian government are mixture of ultra-conservatives and actual neo-fascists. Italy will not return to the days of mussolini, but it will come close.

EU has already warned its immigration policy is discriminative, many nations are worried about the army policing the street and lets not forget the new mayor of Roma is from a fascist party and said the Italian navy should turn its guns of illegal immigrants!

You know, Americans and other Anglo speakers have been criticizing (sp?) Italian politics for years and years. However, have you ever been to Italy? It may be corrupt, but is a beautiful place where the PEOPLE care more about the quality of life than about nonsense.

reply to post by 420prajna


Agreed.
But Italians are frustrated by the election laws that have built extreme proportional representation, preventing any party from getting an out right majority (especially in the Senate).

The idea is to prevent another Mussolini from gaining power, but sadly it has lead to governments being so weak they collapse after a few years.