Berlusconi story

Yesterday the Prime Minister appeared on television, essentially to make three points. Now, as regards his performance on the day, each one of us is obviously free to express a personal opinion as regards appearances and content, but we all saw it and it is available on line in any event.
Berlusconi’s message
1) on the telephone, particularly the young girls that have met him may say things, may boast, may tell stories, may exaggerate and make things up, so what is said on the telephone is of no value whatsoever. It’s a shame that anyone who goes to his (Berlusconi’s) house then has their telephone calls monitored. Although this is a rather broad view of immunity, he would like to have telephone immunity not only for himself, but for everyone that knows him … a kind of contagious immunity that, unfortunately for him, is not yet contemplated in our criminal code, but never mind, they government will soon remedy that; 2) Lele Mora is a great man, a great professional, although it is not quite clear in what field, but apparently in a variety of fields, ranging from trafficking in underage girls through to dealings with the ‘ndrangheta. He is a great professional that also happens to have a previous conviction for drug dealing. There too he was extremely professional and so our Prime Minister, realising that the man was in trouble (Mora is currently on trial for business disasters such as companies going down the tubes, bankruptcies and suchlike), lent him a truckload of money, which Mora will pay back once he has come right and is back on his feet; 3) The Prime Minister has gotten engaged, although total secrecy still reigns as to precisely whom the lucky lady may be. However, I think that sooner or later, one of his newspapers, magazines or friendly television programmes will undoubtedly introduce the one to whom the obliging newspapers are already referring as the “white lady”. At this point we could well say: who cares what the Prime Minister does in his private life, once again he is being spied on, this poor fellow who has already been tried to the limit by people making fun of, or digging through his personal life. If this were indeed so, then it would be reprehensible. As the Prime Minister himself said, everyone is free to do whatever he likes in the sanctity of his own home and he is a free man after all. For years we knew that his marriage to Veronica was on the skids but was kept alive for show. The truth is that the two of them had been separated for years, so, as far as I’m concerned, he was free to do whatever he wanted even before the official divorce and perhaps the Prime Minister’s affairs should in no way cause a scandal or for that matter land up on the front pages of the newspapers. There are however certain limits in this regard. The Prime Minister is free to have as many lovers as he wishes, all the girls he can handle and go to bed with whomever he wants and do whatever he wishes, but subject to two conditions, namely 1) that he does not commit any crime, which is applicable not only to the Prime Minister but to all of us equally. Crimes can also be committed in the sanctity of one’s home and it’s not as if a man can beat his wife inside the home and then go on TV and say that what happens in his own home is his own business. The fact remains that he beat his wife and that is a crime. Take burglars for example, they do their work in other people’s houses since I don’t think they normally burglarise their own homes, so they also cannot claim the right to privacy in the sanctity of the home, so the first condition is that no crime is being committed, even more so if the individual happens to be the head of the government; 2) that the individual does not allow himself to get to a point where what happens in his private life begins to affect his public life, not only because this would make him liable to blackmail, but also because it could cause the individual to make certain choices that they would not normally have made if it weren’t for his behaviour, choices dictated by personal interests rather than by the public interest.
Then there is also a possible third consideration, a third condition, which is that of consistency. Politicians can be bigots, libertines, or whatever else they want to be, as long as they admit it openly. If a government reserves the right to dictate what the citizens get up to between the sheets in their own bedrooms, it obviously cannot then expert to be able to behave differently to how the citizens are expected to behave by law. One cannot apply limitations on others without applying those same limitations on oneself just because one is in the position to pass laws and decrees. One also cannot hoodwink the citizens by claiming to be the defenders of traditional family values of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and then do the exact opposite! This is not merely a case of not practicing what you preach, it’s simply a case of fooling people and now and again those elected to high office have to go back and test the approval of the electorate and must therefore be clear regarding what they stand for. They may say: “we believe and our program stipulates that everyone is free to do as he/she wishes”, but then they must let the people get on with it, they must allow same-sex couples and gays to live in peace and they must grant equal rights to everyone, rather than taking away rights from others while granting those same rights only to themselves. Nor can they introduce draconian laws against prostitution and then frequent those very same circles. We all know what happens abroad. They always tell us that the Americans and the English are moralists because they go and see what is going on in the politicians’ bedrooms, but it’s not true that they are moralists, they are simply people that have a culture of truth. A private individual is free to not tell the truth, but a politician who lies to the voters has to bear the consequences of his actions and no one should make comparisons, but who amongst us doesn’t have a lover? Who amongst us doesn’t love women? Who amongst us doesn’t enjoy sex? This is not the real problem. The fact is that Berlusconi is free to love women, he’s free to have as many lovers as he wishes, he’s free to enjoy sex and he’s indeed free to have sex in the most extreme manner that may come to mind, but what he mustn’t do is try to make himself out to be the champion of certain values and then proceed to be the first in line to overlook those values. This counts only inasmuch as he is subject to the voters because, were he a normal citizen, he could do whatever he wanted, just like the rest of us.
The two main principles, however, are that he mustn’t break the law and that he mustn’t put himself in a position to be blackmailed or to allow his private life to influence his public life because every decision made by the government or by his government majority ultimately affects us and we want to be sure that everything he does is being done freely and is not being influenced, limited or enforced in any way whatsoever.
What we don’t want is someone behind the scenes saying: if you don’t do that then on your head be it. At that point he would no longer truly be free to act as Prime Minister, so he would no longer be a suitable individual to carry out his official duties in the public interest.
So Berlusconi went ahead and made this little speech, but why did he do this? Well, because he knows that today, while we’re here chatting, the investigation report involving him has been disclosed, particularly the part of the documentation that regards him personally and his alleged involvement in extortion and the exploitation and/or facilitation of underage prostitution. The documentation has been sent to the Chamber, to the Junta for the necessary authorisations, and is therefore no longer secret, but why? Well, because it is now in the hands of the dozens of parliamentarians that make up the Junta, parliamentarians that will obviously not, we sincerely hope not, keep it to themselves. Just imagine the potential for blackmail if these documents were only circulated to a handful of people, so it’s better that everything comes out now in the Chamber because, after all, the Chamber is everyone’s house and should, technically speaking, be the proverbial glass house. Whatever there is in the Chamber should be in full view, but precisely for that reason, Berlusconi was fully aware that the Milan Prosecution’s investigation report against him would be released today, so he chose to strike first by telling the people how to interpret the wiretapped telephone conversations between the young girls that visited his homes, how we should interpret the discovery of the sums of money that he gave to Lele Mora, who is accused by the Milan Prosecution, together with Emilio Fede and Nicole Minetti, of sourcing prostitutes to provide solace to the Prime Minister. Those under suspicion include Lombardy Regional Councillor Nicole Minetti, elected to office last May on the Formigoni ticket, former club dancer at the Colorado Cafè and supposedly Berlusconi’s personal dental hygienist, or perhaps even his psychologist, given the Prime Minister’s state of mind, and then Lele Mora, agent to the stars and wannabe starlets, and finally Emilio Fede, Managing Editor of Tg4 television news.
What are… obviously why he suddenly produced a fiancée? Well, obviously because if there really is a fiancée waiting in the wings, then we immediately have to say, as he did, the he always takes his fiancée with him to these parties, so how could anyone believe that anything even remotely illegal and unclean is going on at these parties? I am not a fool. If I were to organise a bunch of tarts, I certainly wouldn’t invite my fiancée along, unless, that is, the fiancée is herself a tart, but how could anyone believe that the Prime Minister would get engaged to a tart, so given that there is no way that this “white lady”, the purest soul in the entire world, would be party to the kind of scenes that the killer press and the communist Magistrature has invented to describe these relaxing do’s at Villa Arcore.
But what are the facts? Where did this investigation originate? This investigation was revealed by Il Fatto Quotidiano in October last year, after it had already commenced, when it was discovered that there was this underage girl, the now famous Ruby, which is merely a nickname because she is in reality nothing more than a poor little Moroccan girl whose parents live in Sicily, a girl who left home, a bit of a drifter, with no fixed abode, who obviously dreamed of getting into show business and television. As soon as she landed in Milan, she was immediately introduced into the right circles, the circles run by Lele Mora and Emilio Fede, who met her at a provincial talent contest in Messina where he was one of the judges. He took her to Arcore and Berlusconi allegedly took pity on her when he heard her tearful tale and, being the good man that he is, he helped her by living her money and tried to get her off the streets, so when she landed up at the Police Station, he immediately ran to her aid by arranging for her to be placed in the custody of one of the Prime Minister’s deputies, namely Ms. Minetti, who agreed to take custody of this young girl. That is what emerged back in October last year. Thus began the magistrature’s investigation, but why, you ask? Well, because what occurred at the Police Station reveals a potential failure to adhere to legal custody procedure as regards this young girl without fixed abode who, still being underage, could not be released on her own recognisance after being accused of a minor theft and simply be let back out onto the streets by the Police. This situation required someone to stand up for this young girl, someone to take custody of her, and that’s when Berlusconi’s phone call came.

Bunga bunga with Ruby
However, what actually came to light during the course of this investigation? We know that this Ruby girl was first invited to Arcore for a Saint Valentine’s party on 14 February last year, which the investigators discovered while examining her mobile phone records. As you probably already know, it is possible to track the movements of a mobile phone, minute by minute, even without resorting to wiretapping, and that is part of the work that is done by the Public Prosecutors’ technical consultants like the famous Gioacchino Genchi. As the mobile phone user moves around, the phone’s location can be tracked by examining the tracking records of the various cell phone towers. We can see where the phone stopped moving and, given the fact that mobile phones don’t move around of their own accord, it is obvious that the mobile phone’s movements show where the user is, which in this case Ruby, so it is clear that on Saint Valentine’s day last year, Ruby was in Milan until 20h50, then she was at Arcore, then there were no further signals because the phone was switched off until 03h40 the next morning and then again at 06h50, still in Arcore, after which the signal was located once again in Milan. Ruby returned to Arcore the following week, on the night between the 27th and the 28th, again two weeks later on the 9th March, then there was a break, after which she was back at Arcore on the night between the 4th and the 5th April and again on the night between the 24th and the 25th April, but what happened exactly on the night between the 24th and the 25th April? The celebration of the Liberation took place at La Scala Opera House in Milan on that evening, obviously attended by both the State President and the Prime Minister. Soon thereafter Vladimir Putin arrived at Arcore, so he and Ruby were also together at Arcore on the 26th April when Ruby returned once again, in Putin’s presence. Her last presence at Arcore was on the night between the 1st and the 2nd of May.
It seems that on the 27th May, Ruby was hurrying back to Arcore when she was arrested after being accused of a minor theft by a friend, at which point she was taken to the Police Station. So she couldn’t get to Arcore because she spent a few hours in the Police Station until Ms. Minetti came to get her out. This means that somewhere around 8 meetings took place between the 14th February and the 1st May last year, and this could be called somewhat frequent.
But why did Ruby become a problem for the Police Station? Well, because she had to be questioned, her identity had to be checked since she didn’t have any identity documents on her. She told them her name and that she was underage, so you can imagine the Berlusconi’s consternation at the thought that this underage girl who had spent 8 nights at his private home was now at the mercy of the Police, and we all know how the Police are don’t we?. When they question someone they aren’t satisfied with minor details, they don’t offer you tea and cake . When they question you, the Police want to get down to brass tacks and find out who you are, what you do and what circles you frequent, but why? Well, because what we’re dealing with here is an underage girl with no fixed abode, without any identification, jobless, a foreigner, so it rings alarm bells.
The Brazilian woman, also a prostitute, who hosted Ruby for some time, hears from Ruby herself that she had been arrested, so what does this Brazilian woman do? She telephones Berlusconi, who was on a State visit to Paris at the time. How is it that a Brazilian prostitute just happens to have Berlusconi’s private mobile phone number at hand just then? She too claims to have met Berlusconi some months earlier and that he had given her his private mobile phone number, telling her that she could phone him in an emergency. One would immediately think “an earthquake” or “a flood”, but no, Ruby being held at a Police Station, now that’s a real emergency! But how on earth would that qualify as an emergency, you ask? Well, because heaven alone knows what that girl may be telling the police officers that are questioning her, we have to get her out of there as soon as possible!
Thus Nicole Minetti, regional councillor gets sent out in the middle of the night, and you all know what happened next.
She gets to the Police Station, we don’t know whether or the Brazilian woman was with her, and says: I have been sent by Prime Minister, although the Prime Minister had already announced her arrival via the mobile phone of the Chief of his security detail, in which he assured the Police that Ms. Minetti would take custody of the girl, and that they had better let her go without looking too closely into her identity because she is the granddaughter of Egyptian President Mubarac. Total consternation at the Police Station: My God, we have laid hands on the granddaughter of the President of a foreign Country and we risk causing an International incident. The Prime Minister phones and orders that the girl be released into the custody of a regional councillor, how can we refuse? They quickly carry out a cursory identification procedure and they don’t do what they should have done, which they didn’t have time to do in any event, namely to properly identify the girl and send her to a suitable shelter. The Corriere Della Sera later found out that, on that night, there were some 6 or 7 shelters willing and able to accommodate the girl, with space available, while some liar at the Police Station said, after the fact, that they had asked around at the shelters but none of them had any space available, which was a lie!
So these policemen and Police officials are now forced to lie and to do things they shouldn’t do, but why? Well, because the Prime Minister is abusing his powers rather than merely exercising them because the Prime Minister’s powers certainly do not include the right to tell the Police what to do when they arrest an underage Moroccan girl without fixed abode and, if he does so, then he is abusing his poker and they, intimidated by the fact that Berlusconi personally phones claiming that the girl is Mubarac’s granddaughter and that this could spark off an International incident with Egypt if she held, these guys land up doing things that they shouldn’t do, totally ignoring the instructions given to them telephonically by Children’s Court Prosecutor Anna Maria Fiorillo, who ordered them to hold the girl there, establish her identity and, if they could not establish her identity at that time of night, to accommodate her in a suitable shelter until the next day. However, Ruby must not be held, personal orders from Berlusconi himself, so they totally ignore what the Prosecutor had told them to do and instead they let her go with Ms. Minetti, Berlusconi’s personal envoy, whom he assured them would take care of her. The fact is that she did not in fact take care of the girl at all! As soon as they were out of the Police Station, Ms. Minetti left the girl in the street, at which point the girl went straight back to the Brazilian prostitute who had phoned Berlusconi earlier.
At this point, the investigations continued and Ruby was questioned on numerous occasions by the Milan Prosecution, but why? Well, because in the days following her arrest, Ruby once again identified by the Police, having once again escape from the shelter where she had been placed and where she in turn claims to have been robbed. She claims that someone stole seven thousand Euro in cash that she had been carrying around with her. When the Police intervened, they arrested a thief who had already managed to spend about 2 thousand Euro and they thus returned 5 thousand Euro to the girl. But the question is how does a young girl such as this walk around with all this money in 500-Euro bills? After further questioning, etc., it unsurprisingly turns out that Berlusconi had given her that money, what a sweetheart! More investigations, which reveal that Ruby was not the only visitor to Arcore during the period in question, but there are dozens of other girls that pay regular visits to Arcore, tagging along with Lele Mora or Emilio Fede or Ms. Minetti or all three of them. They often even arrive in escorted vehicles because Fede has his own escort, as does Berlusconi. Sometimes these girls come in via the main gate in Lele Mora’s SUV, there’s even a film of this in the Oggi weekly. On other occasions they come in through a back entrance because the front gate at Arcore is guarded by the Carabinieri.
So the investigators discover this prostitution ring and they then start surveillance on these girls’ telephones. They are heard talking all about the things that go an at Arcore. They are heard talking about this Bunga Bunga, which the investigators didn’t understand at first, that is until Ruby herself is heard to say: Berlusconi told me that he had instituted this Bunga Bunga ritual, which he learned from Gheddafi, after discovering that this Bunga Bunga was a popular pastime in the Gheddafi’s Harem, but what is it actually? It’s a term meaning parties and rustic, bucolic orgies, but in fact it is a rather terrible practice that involves the masochism and sodomy of young girls that are rewarded after prancing around half-naked in front of the Prime Minister, after which they wait expectantly for a few minutes because, next comes a dinner and then the after-dinner dancing, shows and modelling, with the Prime Minister obviously providing the outfits, all of which takes place in like a sad little discotheque located in the basement at Arcore. These shows give the girls a chance to advertise their wares because only a few of them ever get chosen to stay the night. These are the ones that earn the most and that have a better chance of advancing their careers in the entertainment world, or so they think, and who knows, perhaps even in the political world, so the prize in the end is the Bunga Bunga.
So, according to these girls, all the Bunga Bunga really is, is a quickie with the Prime Minister, not Ruby however, who says that she only ever watched these shows but never took part personally and indeed that she has never had sex with the Prime Minister.
At this point the magistrates are faced with two crimes, that is why they’re investigating, not for the mere pleasure of seeing what the Prime Minister gets up to but merely because they have discovered that, in his own home, the Prime Minister has committed yet another crime, namely his telephone call to the Milan Police Station with lies, threats and intimidation.

The end users of underage prostitutes
But what precisely is the crime that the magistrates believe is being committed at Villa Arcore during these “parties”, these sad little parties that are apparently also attended now and again by Emilio Fede and Carlo il Rossella. These are old men, so you can just imagine how sad it is when these young girls of 16/18/20 years of age, showing off their bodies to these 70 or 80 year old men who drool at the sight? A scene so pathetic that it precludes any concept of joy, party atmosphere and love of life that they may claim exists. The crime that the magistrates believe has been committed at Berlusconi’s home is that of underage prostitution and here I would like to read you an excerpt from article 600-bis, clause two of the Penal Code, which stipulates that: “anyone who causes an underage individual younger than 18 years of age to prostitute him/herself, or who encourages or exploits prostitution shall be liable to serve a jail sentence of between 6 and 12 years, as well as pay a fine of between 15,493 and 154,937,000 Euro”. That is the charge that is being made against Fede, Mora and Ms. Minetti, but not against Berlusconi because this constitutes exploitation and encouragement of underage prostitution. Berlusconi faces the less serious charge contemplated in clause two of the Penal Code, namely that of being the end user of underage prostitution, without prejudice to the “aggravating circumstance being when someone performs sexual acts with a minor between 14 and 18 years of age in Exchange for money or other financial consideration, who shall be liable to a jail term of between 3 and 6 months and a fine of not less than 5,164 Euro”. Last year, Ghedini said with regard to another case, namely the Daddario affair, that at worst Ms. Daddario went with Berlusconi, but Berlusconi cannot be accused of exploiting prostitution because she was paid by Tarantino, so at worst he was the end user. In this case, however, he cannot get away with saying that “someone else paid her” because the fact remains that he used the services o fan underage prostitute and it was he who gave her the money, via his accountant Giuseppe Spinelli, but how and why would Berlusconi’s long-serving accountant pay these girls that prostitute themselves? Paid with apartments in the Milan 2 residential complex, rent free, with even their utility bills being paid for them, paid with envelopes bulging with money, paid with presents, expensive clothes, jewellery, etc. Those are the prosecution’s allegations, the main charge being the crime committed at Arcore.
A crime that could well be aggravated by another crime, with clause three of the very same article 600 stipulating that: “anyone using underage individuals younger than 18 years of age to put on shows or produce pornographic material, or who causes underage individuals younger than 18 to participate in pornographic shows shall be liable to serve a prison sentence of between 6 and 12 years, as well as a fine of between 25-thousand and 258-thousand Euro”. From what they tell us, these girls were not just there to take part in the Bunga Bunga ritual, but even before this, in order to be selected, to be nominated to spend the night and to earn more money, as much as 5 to 7-thousand Euro per night, they were obliged to cavort naked or at least half-naked around the edges of the swimming pool in dances, dressed up as nurses, policewomen, etc. Here too, if the girls taking part in these shows are underage, the individual that makes them do so is committing a crime and that’s why the Milan Prosecution is busy investigating the events. After all, anyone who has a daughter of their own should be thankful that the Penal Code punishes this kind of behaviour. At least we know that certain things are prohibited, that there is no question of privacy, no intrusion into one’s private life, no voyeurism and we really couldn’t give a damn about whatever it is that Berlusconi gets up to with women, as long as he is not committing any crime. The Milan Prosecution believes that he has indeed committed a crime, so what are they supposed to do about it, simply look the other way perhaps? Fortunately here in Italy they are obliged to prosecute whenever a crime has been uncovered.
So as we were saying about yesterday’s speech, what are the facts and the reasons behind it? Up to now, Berlusconi’s purpose as regards his court cases has always been to either make money and increase his power base, or to conceal the crimes he had committed in the past precisely to make money and increase his power base, think of the cases, namely All Iberian, slush funds, Financial Police, Mills, financial fraud, bribery of politicians, including Craxi, and illegal funding, but this is something totally different. He is a sick old man, a very sick old man suffering from an illness that was revealed two years ago by Veronica Lario, the woman that knows him better than anyone else and perhaps the one that loved him more than anyone else, because she stated that “I can’t go on like this any longer” because I no longer carry him here in my heart. Those that are close to him now must help him because he is unwell, he has this thing for underage girls!
No one was prepared to listen to her then and indeed many people said that Ms. Lario had become a communist, that she was at heaven alone knows which Bolshevik Service’s service while, in reality, Ms. Lario was merely warning that “this man is unwell!”, that this man deserved to have some friend, relation of perhaps one of his children to take him in hand, to look after him and to tell him to get out of politics, go and look for some treatment for your ailment because you’re busy single-handedly destroying yourself. That is precisely what is happening now, and it’s got nothing whatsoever to do with money, it is simply an obvious pathological problem, which Berlusconi is trying to conceal by letting the entire Country go to the dogs because, as regards his job, never mind his legitimate impediment claims that he spends 24 hours out of every 24 running this Country, in fact he is spending most of his time going with tarts and whatever little time he has left he spends trying to concealing the fact that he is going with tarts! The fact is that if you have one whore every now and then, you are still be in control of the situation, but when you get to the point of having 20/30/40 girls brought in every night, you can probably imagine how many people there are out there who could demand something from him in return for their silence, and imagine just how many manage to slip through! How many of these girls go around telling stories and there’s always a risk that one of these could just land up in front of a policeman and could begin to spill the beans, but why? Well, because there are simply too many of them out there, that’s why! No Middle-Eastern Harem has ever experienced anything like the things that we have read about already, those that we undoubtedly will still read about in the investigation report and those that are emerging from the Chamber of Deputies.
Where is the proof of these crimes, according to the Prosecution? The telephone call to the Police Station and all that happened immediately thereafter is recorded, minute by minute, in the policemen’s statements and the testimony provided by Public Prosecutor Fiorillo, the telephone calls and telephone records of the girls who explained what they went there to do and who clearly did precisely that, as witnessed by all of their telephone records, all located by the same mobile phone tower at Arcore. There is one recorded telephone conversation that we have not yet seen but that Il Fatto Quotidiano has already mentioned reveals Berlusconi talking to Ms.Minetti, in which he allegedly says that he knew that Ruby was underage, but the judges will never be able to prove that, except that he betrayed himself yet again, not only because he said this to Ms. Minetti whose phone was under surveillance at the time, but also because when you phone the Police Station to order that the girl be released to Ms. Minetti’s custody, it automatically means that you were fully aware of the fact that this girl was underage, otherwise why on earth would she need to be put in anyone’s custody in the first place? Girls over 18 years of age are free to wherever they like and it’s only underage girls that have to be in someone’s custody, so if Berlusconi went and found a custodian for that girl, namely Ms.Minetti, it can only mean that he knew that Ruby was underage. So with that he incriminated himself. They questioned two girls who took part in these parties together with Ms. Minetti and, unfortunately for him they didn’t have strong-enough stomach and landed up spewing out what they witnessed, so they were questioned by the magistrates and spilt the beans on what they had seen.
Finally there’s the matter of the envelopes full of money that were discovered. A number of them bore the words “Silvio B.”, can you guess who that could be? Envelopes containing 1000/2000/5000 Euro found in the girls’ homes in this Milano 2 complex, made available to them by Berlusconi. How is he going to talk his way out of that one? As with every other legal case, he claims that the Milan Prosecution doesn’t have jurisdiction because his house is at Arcore, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Monza Prosecution, but his problem is that the most serious offence, namely the crime of extortion, namely telephone call to a Public Official in order to force him, under threat, to release Ruby, actually occurred in Milan and since this is the most serious of the charges, which carries a penalty of I think 12 year imprisonment, the jurisdiction for the crime that he tried to conceal, namely the underage prostitution that took place in Monza lies right here with Milan, so what now? Now they are saying that the normal Court doesn’t have jurisdiction and that the case must be heard by the Ministerial Court since Berlusconi is Prime Minister and the Constitution stipulates that any proceedings resulting from crimes committed by the Prime Minister while in office are subject to prior authorisation by Parliament and then the Ministerial Court, However, the Prosecution has already responded, by stating the crimes were not committed during the course of doing his job as Prime Minister because if he had been acting as Prime Minister, he would never have committed extortion in the first place.
So while it’s one thing to manipulate a tender, which undoubtedly qualifies as abuse of power and is thus a crime committed while exercising your powers as Prime Minister, and while it’s one thing to appoint three secretaries because they happen to be your lovers, even though they may be useless and the official selection procedures have been bypassed, this qualifies as abuse of your powers as Prime Minister, but why? Well, because appointing secretaries falls within the scope of your powers, although you still abused those powers. But it’s a totally different matter when you phone the Police Station and demand the release of a young girl certainly does not fall within the scope of the Prime Minister’s powers. It’s up to the Police to make that decision and the Police Services in any event report to the Internal Affairs Ministry.

Mavalà Ghedini’s own-goal
That is why in this case there is no need for Parliamentary authorisation to proceed against Berlusconi and he will not be tried by the Ministerial Court. He must be tried by a normal Court. So why then has the case docket landed up before the Junta, together with a request for the Chamber’s authorisation to proceed? Well, because just the other day, the Prosecution attempted to conduct a search at the offices of Berlusconi’s accountant, namely Mr. Spinelli, but Attorney Ghedini intervened immediately, saying that: you cannot enter either Mr. Spinelli’s home or his offices, but why? Well, because Mr. Spinelli is just like Berlusconi and so, searching Mr. Spinelli’s premises is like searching Berlusconi’s premises, which cannot be searched without Parliamentary authorisation to proceed with the search. Mr. Spinelli is like an extension of Berlusconi and even the immunity is contagious, extending to Spinelli even thug he has never been a parliamentarian. Naturally, the Milan judges are being understandably and scrupulously prudent in this matter, even thug they could simply have laughed off such a puerile interpretation, but what does Mr. Spinelli have to do with Berlusconi anyway? Instead, they said: Okay, then we’ll ask Parliament for permission to search Berlusconi’s premises as well as Spinelli’s. What an own-goal that is for Ghedini, because now the reports have all landed up in Parliament and instead of remaining safely closeted in the safe of the Milan Prosecution, they are now open for all to see.
Of course, we all already know what the majority-controlled Junta will do. They will simply deny permission to proceed with any search of Berlusconi’s premises and therefore also those of Spinelli, but anyway, what do you think the investigators would have uncovered at Spinelli’s premises? Everyone has known since last October that the Milan Prosecution was busy investigating the Ruby affair and we’re now in January, so would he really still be hiding any incriminating material relating to the payments made to these girls in his offices? In any event, this fact has already been proven by other means. Remember the envelopes that were found and the girls’ trips to go and collect their payments from Mr. Spinelli. Furthermore, they even phoned him to complain that some of their neighbours had received more than they did, etc., so there was no real need for any search of his premises and this was all just a ploy, which, thanks to Ghedini’s own-goal, means that the reports are now out in the open.
So what happens next? The Chamber will vote, firstly Junta will vote on whether or not to authorise the search, then the Chamber itself will vote, probably against allowing the search of Berlusconi and Spinelli’s premises, but in any event the magistrates believe that they have sufficient grounds, so sufficient in fact that they want to go to trial immediately with the charges against Berlusconi in terms of the expedited procedure, but what is this expedited procedure anyway? Expedited judgement is a special procedure whereby there is no initial hearing. As you know, what currently happens is that preliminary investigations are conducted, then the docket is forwarded to the defence, which then has a few days time to ask the Public Prosecutor to investigate further on certain issues or to question certain witnesses if they have nota s yet been heard. Once the Prosecutor has done this, he can then be asked whether or not the matter is to be remanded for trial and if the Preliminary Investigations Magistrate believes it should be, then the actual trial begins. The expedited procedure instead, is an immediate matter. The Public Prosecutor asks the Preliminary Investigations Magistrate to immediately remand the individual for trial, without holding any preliminary hearing first and without lodging the case docket first, immediately, but why? Well, because the evidence that has been gathered is so overwhelming that these additional steps are meaningless. This is an alternative to the normal procedure and is specifically designed to expedite trial proceedings in cases where there is really nothing to discuss. Obviously the defendant is entitled to his defence, however, everything happens very quickly, so they have summonsed Berlusconi to appear next week, offering him three possible dates, given his many commitments, because prior to the expedited procedure the accused has to be questioned and, if he refuses, then worse for him. The tight deadlines are a very interesting feature, because it means that the evidence they have must be unquestionable and judgement must be swift. The expedited proceedings must commence within 90 days from when Berlusconi’s name was first entered in the Accused’s register, which in this case happened just before Charismas, on the 21st December to be precise, so judgement must begin by no later than the 21st March and now we’ll see what Ghedini and company are going to come up with to try to prevent this from happening. They have already announced that they intend to lodge appeals left, right and centre, including the UN, Amnesty International and heaven alone knows what other bodies, but if the law takes its course, by 21 March Berlusconi should be on trial for consorting with underage prostitutes, perhaps aggravated and perhaps not by those pornographic shows involving underage girls, as well as extortion, for which he risks going to jail for many years.
I would like to say one more thing in closing and that is that, as I said before, that the problem is not the fact that Berlusconi is under investigation because that is merely a consequence of the real problem because he is in any event already under investigation for various other alleged crimes including bribery and corruption, financial fraud, tax fraud, illegal funding, undue appropriation, and even for Mafia activities. At this very moment, Berlusconi is even under investigation for the Florence killings, so one could say: well, under those conditions, there is no way he can continue as Prime Minister. So the mere fact that he is under investigation for extortion and involvement in underage prostitution is not the real problem, which is the state of our Prime Minister if he feels the need to participate in the kind of activities revealed by this investigation. Although such activities are illegal and, since everyone is supposedly equal before the law, he must at all costs be brought to book, in this case the legal aspect is almost secondary to the human aspect, which has nothing to do with his personal and therefore extremely private health conditions, but rather the fact that we are being governed by a man whose psychological and physical condition is extremely suspect, a man who would undoubtedly be impeached if this were any other Country, irrespective of what went on at his house and whether or not it was indeed a crime but, unfortunately impeachment doesn’t exist here in Italy. However we still have a Head of State that could enlighten us and who could finally answer the question already posed in the Economist back in 2001 and one that everyone should be asking, even the members of the centre-right, namely: How can a man such as this, one that is so obviously sick and resorts to the kind of things mentioned by dozens of young girls and that lead him to phone the Milan Police Station from Paris to rescue, cover up and silence people, and to dish out envelopes left right and centre to girls whom he allegedly doesn’t even know, how can such a man continue to govern the Country, even a derelict one like ours is at the moment?

Rather than sending him to jail, we should send him for specialist treatment, make him better and possibly get him out of Palazzo Chigi. At the moment, however, given the fact the we have no real, credible opposition, the only ones that can do what is necessary are those that are senior to him, which means the Head of State. Who knows whether he is able to understand the fact that we cannot go on with a government that is headed up by someone such as this.