by GIUSEPPE D'AVANZO
Ruby
The lies in Silvio Berlusconi's TV statement are ten in number. Below we demonstrate how the words of the Premier are falsifying variations. They form a fictitious representation for public opinion that appears largely bogus, including in light of what already has emerged from the documents in connection with the Milan investigation. The lies in the declarations of the Premier must deny how and why he managed to have weaselled out of Police Headquarters, removing from State custody, a minor accused of theft. A female minor with whom the head of government entertained, for at least three months, very intense relations: between the two there are 67 phone contacts in 77 days.
Unable to tell the truth about this relationship, the Premier is forced to lie again: he speaks of judicial persecution; he invents a violation of his privacy; he accuses the police of having mistreated his female friends: it is a self-defence that brooks no verification. "I don't have to feel ashamed," says Berlusconi. His ten lies ought to convince him not only to feel ashamed but also to assume the responsibility to make matters clear before the Bench and before the country.
Here, then, are the ten lies that, if necessary, we shall expand on over time.
1. "I HAVEN'T THREATENED ANYONE"
The Premier says: "I'll read to you the answers of the functionary at the Public Prosecutor's Office where he describes my phone call: "The security officer said to me: 'Dr, I'm putting you through to the Premier because there's a problem. Immediately afterwards the Premier told me that there was a girl of North African origin who had been reported to him as Mubarak's niece and that a member of the Regional Council, Mrs Minetti, would have taken responsibility for this girl. The phone call ended on that note.' But does it seem to you that this can be considered a threatening phone call?"
Berlusconi knows he is lying because there was more than a single phone call with the Private Secretary. As stated in the invitation to appear before judicial authorities, the functionary received repeated "further calls from the Premier" (the Public Prosecutor's Office has not divulged all Berlusconi's telephone contacts or yet made public the exact number.) They must have been urgent and impending enough as to suggest to the Private Secretary to make 24 calls to the functionary on duty, to the direct superior of the same, and to the Chief of Police. The first call comes in at 00:02.21, with the last recorded at 6:47.14. It matters not a whit whether or not the Private Secretary perceived "a threat" in the words of the Premier. It is indisputable that the functionary busies about. The upshot is the placing of Ruby, in actual fact, in the custody of a prostitute, Michele Coincecao, which eventuality the competent Children's Court, in the person of Anna Maria Fiorillo, had ruled out. This is the result of the pressure exerted by Berlusconi: the police disobey the magistrate's orders.
2. "I DIDN'T HAVE SEX WITH RUBY"
The Premier says: "I'm accused of having had sexual relations with a girl under 18 years old, Ruby. This girl has declared to the lawyers and a thousand times to all the Italian and foreign newspapers that she never ever had sexual relations with me."
It is helpful to remember how Ruby was "approached" by lawyers, by what lawyers and on what occasion. Going back to 6 October 2010, Ruby has to meet with her lawyer, not the one she has today (Massimo Di Noja), who would be appointed only on 29th October, but Luca Giuliante, also Lele Mora's counsel for the defence. Ruby reached the law office accompanied by a friend, Luca Risso. Risso, via SMS, reports what happens to a female friend of his. Five messages are useful. 1. "I'm in the middle of an unbelievable interrogation.... I'll tell you about it later, but it's crazy!" 2. "It keeps getting worse, when I tell you about it later (if I'll be able to..."). 3. The friend at the other end texts back: "Why are they questioning Ruby?" 4. Risso writes: "There's Lele [Mora], the lawyer, Ruby, an emissary of His [sic]. A woman making a written record. I'm here because they think I know everything." 5. "I'm still here. Now I've gone outside to stretch my legs. She's up there, they've stopped a moment because we're at the hard scenes with the Pr... with the person."
From this information one infers a couple of scenes. Ruby was the protagonist of "hard scenes" with the Premier.Lele Mora, Berlusconi's emissary, and attorney Giuliante "interrogate" her to learn what she has told the public prosecutors. It is a real debriefing that can enable them to know the accusations, to anticipate the moves of the public prosecutors and to rebut the girl's recollections with the sworn statement that Berlusconi waves today. Uselessly, because it appears to be more the fruit of either moral violence or corruption, if one takes Ruby at her word when she tells her father: "I'm with the lawyer, Silvio has told him: tell her that I'll pay her the price she wants. The important thing is that she keeps her mouth shut." It is 26 October 2010.
3. "EVEN RUBY FREES ME FROM BLAME"
The Premier says: "I'm reading you what Ruby herself states in a declaration that is signed and authenticated by her lawyers: 'I have never had any type of sexual relation with Mr Silvio Berlusconi. No one, neither Mr Berlusconi nor other persons, has ever proposed to me the possibility of obtaining money or other benefits in exchange for a willingness to have relations of a sexual nature with Mr Silvio Berlusconi. I can add that, instead, I received from him, as a form of help, in view of my particular situation of difficulty, a sum of money. When I met Mr Berlusconi, I illustrated to him my personal and family state in the following terms: I told him I was 24 years old, that I was an Egyptian national (not Moroccan), that I came from a family of high social status, in particular that I was the daughter of a well-known Egyptian singer. I also told him about my being in trouble owning to having been disowned by my original family after I had converted to Catholicism.' This is why I would like to go to trial immediately, with this irrefutable evidence, but with judges who are super partes.
Rather than irrefutable, these sources of evidence appear insincere. We have seen the kind of climate and before what actors Ruby's letter absolving Berlusconi comes into existence. The tale could have been better contrived. Even setting aside those "hard scenes" there are at least some important factors that make it fall apart and tell us the extent of Berlusconi's failure to tell the truth. The Premier knew Ruby was a minor and never believed she was from "a family of high social status" because it was Emilio Fede who scrutinised her at a beauty contest in Sicily in 2009. The journalist knows that she is a "misfit." There is a video that shows her when, on that occasion, he says: "There's a 13-year-old girl, Egyptian if I'm not mistaken; I was moved, I offered solidarity [because] the girl doesn't have her parents anymore."
Out of "solidarity" Fede steers the teenager to Lele Mora, who "weans" her and in that same year assigns her to Berlusconi's evenings. Some witnesses refer that in 2009 Ruby frequented Villa San Martino on two occasions. She confirms it: "I have frequented Berlusconi since I was 16 years old." The meetings with the Sovereign would not be occasional. The Dragon takes a fancy to her. From 14th February to 2nd May 2010 the telephone contacts between Ruby and the Premier number 67. Nearly a phone call every day.
4. "IT'S THE 28TH PERSECUTION"
The Premier says: "I've finally had a chance to read the 389 pages of the latest real judicial persecution, the 28th in 17 years."
The number of Berlusconi's trials is a merciful mystery that changes according to the circumstances. The Cavaliere says: "[I'm] absolutely the most prosecuted by the magistrature in all ages, in the whole history of mankind throughout the world. [I've been] subjected to 106 trials, all ending with acquittals and two invalidated by prescription" (10 October 2009). On the same day, Marina Berlusconi scales down the paternal hyperbole: "Between trials and investigations my father has been involved 26 times. But he hasn't been found guilty once, I repeat, once. And if, as they say, three instances of circumstantial evidence suffice to constitute proof, doesn't it seem to you that 26 accusations that led nowhere are incontrovertible proof of a persecution?" (Corriere, 10 October 2009). A few days later, Paolo Bonaiuti, the Premier's spokesman, further pumps up the computation: "The trials against Berlusconi number 109" ("Porta a porta" TV show, 15 October 2009). Even host Bruno Vespa rebuts, endorsing Marina's count: "Let's not exaggerate, the trials number 26."
Twenty-eight, 26, 106 or 109, and how many acquittals? Actually, the trials the Cavaliere has faced as defendant number 16. Four are still underway: bribery in connection with judicial acts in the Mills affaire; tax fraud concerning Mediaset TV rights (being heard in Milan); embezzlement in the Mediatrade affaire; and this latest for abuse of office and abetting juvenile prostitution.
In the trials already ended, only three cases saw sentences of acquittal. On one occasion with full acquittal, for the "Sme-Ariosto/1" affaire (the bribery of Rome judges). Twice with reservation: the "Medusa" slush funds and the bribes to the Revenue Guard Corps, where the Cavaliere was found guilty of bribery in the first instance, declared guilty with the sentence invalidated by prescription on appeal thanks to generic extenuating circumstances, and acquitted on appeal to the Court of Cassation due to "lack of evidence." With the legal provisions on false book entries reformed and decriminalised by the Berlusconi government, the defendant Berlusconi was acquitted in two trials (All Iberian/2 and Sme-Ariosto/2) because "the fact is not an offence provided for by law."
Two amnesties extinguish the offence and cancel his conviction for perjury (he had fudged the dates of his enrolment in the P2) and for false booking (the lands of Macherio). He was saved five times by "generic extenuating circumstances" that (mind you) can be granted to those found guilty as charged. Moreover, in three cases the "generic extenuating circumstances" allowed him to benefit from the halved invalidation by prescription time that he devised for himself as head of government: "All Iberian/1" (unlawful financing of Craxi); the "Lentini case"; "Fininvest balance sheets1988-1992"; "slush fund in consolidated Fininvest" (1,500 milliard euros); Mondadori (Berlusconi's attorney, Cesare Previti, "buys" Judge Metta, with both found guilty). Rather than judicial persecution, we are before an adventure marked by a high degree of illegality.
5. "THEY'VE BEEN SPYING ON ME SINCE JANUARY 2010"
The Premier says: "Just think, my Arcore home has been subjected to a continuous monitoring that has been going on since January of 2010 to check on all the persons who entered and left and how long they stayed. They have used sophisticated techniques as though they had to do a roundup against the Mafia or against the Camorra". "You must know that the Public Prosecutor's Office of Milan listed me as a suspect only on 21st December last, what a coincidence, just seven days after the vote of confidence in Parliament, and therefore all the previous investigations were formally directed against others but essentially they were keeping precisely my home and my person under control."
God only knows what the vote of confidence has to do with it. What would he have said had the vote gone against him? He would have said that, the government having fallen, the magistrature starts its revenge. Berlusconi must let it be believed in order to politicise a melancholy story of juvenile prostitutes and abuses of power that have nothing to do with politics.
It is false to maintain that his Arcore home has been kept under surveillance for a year. After Ruby's declarations (3 August 2010), the investigations proceed very cautiously. Initially they are directed toward Lele Mora, Emilio Fede and Nicole Minetti. Only in the autumn do possible direct responsibilities of the Premier emerge. Prior to listing Berlusconi in the register of suspects, the public prosecutors, as always, conduct a thorough preliminary examination as to whether the charges have some basis in fact. They request the printouts of Ruby's phone calls beginning from January 2010. Does she really know the head of government? The verification process thus is done after the fact and not in real time as the head of government, lying, maliciously alleges.
6. "THEY HAVE DONE VIOLENCE TO MY HOME"
The Premier says: "In my home I have always performed government and parliamentary duties, even having so informed the Chamber of Deputies since 2004, and the violation that has been committed is particularly serious because it goes against the most elementary constitutional principles."
From no record of the investigation can it be inferred that the residence of the Premier has been "violated." A procurer is being investigated. An eye is kept on the same. The man moves with prostitutes in his retinue. He is followed. It is discovered that the procession of cars, often escorted by a State car, enters the gate of Villa San Martino. No offence is done to the domicile. Rather, we must ask ourselves whether Berlusconi does it offence. There are some good reasons for maintaining so. He pretends that his private dwelling be considered a State residence. Fine. This is why, including owing to an elementary constitutional principle (Art. 54 of the Constitution of the Republic of Italy: "Citizens who have been entrusted with public functions have the duty to discharge them with discipline and honour"), Berlusconi ought not to fill his house with prostitutes (in meeting the obligation of "honour" that should go hand in hand with his public responsibility). He ought to protect himself by exercising "discipline" and not neglect his personal safety, as happens when opening the door to any Italian or foreign girl willing to spend the night with him. His disorderly life has made him vulnerable and open to blackmail. Berlusconi was continuously extorted by his female guests, as one learns from the investigations. It is only natural to ask: These may be minor instances of blackmail, but on how many and what occasions, perhaps at the international level, has Berlusconi also made possible major instances of blackmail? And who knows whether they may still be "current"?
7. "MILAN LACKS JURISDICTION"
The Premier says: "As the law and the Constitution prescribe, within 15 days from the beginning of the investigations the Public Prosecutor's Office should have turned over all the records to the Court of Ministers, the only one competent for all these matters. Furthermore, it is extremely serious that the Public Prosecutor's Office wants to continue to investigate despite not being legitimised to do so. Among other things, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Milan even lacked jurisdiction. As a matter of fact, the offence of abuse of office is being charged against me as though it were committed in Milan. This is obviously groundless since the functionary at Police Headquarters who received my telephone call at the time was, as shown by the investigations themselves, in Sesto San Giovanni. Therefore, the jurisdiction belonged and belongs to the Court of Monza."
It is bizarre that Berlusconi takes on the role of shyster and disputes the jurisdiction of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Milan in a telecast video and not in the courtroom. In the latter it would be more difficult for him to win his point, the pertinent jurisprudence being uniform. Abuse of office is an abuse. It has to do with "power" if the person who engages in it plays on "functional powers for a purpose other than that with which he has been vested" (Court of Cassation). To make things clear, it would have been an abuse of office had the Minister of the Interior called the Police Headquarters of Milan to "recommend" Ruby's release. Such abuse may also involve "capacity." In this case, it involves "behaviour that, regardless of the competencies of the subject (the abuser), manifests itself as an instrumentalisation of the position of pre-eminence held."
This is the case of Berlusconi. Abuse of power and abuse of capacity presuppose two different competencies. The abuse of power by a minister imposes the competence of the Court of Ministers. The abuse of capacity requires territorial competence: Where was the offence committed? The head of government knows that this is the decisive question and tries to stack the deck. He says: Monza has jurisdiction because here is where the Private Secretary of the Police Headquarters that received my phone call lives. Error. Abuse of office is an offence involving an "event" and not "behaviour" and therefore the jurisdiction is rooted where "the gain" materialises. It is undoubted that the gain (Ruby entrusted to Minetti and removed from State protection) becomes concrete in Milan.
8. "ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POLICE OFFICERS AGAINST 10 GIRLS: MY FRIENDS HAVE BEEN MISTREATED"
The Premier says: "The same public prosecutors who ordered, with a deployment of forces numbering at least 150 men, an impressive search operation against girls guilty only of having been my guests at some dinners.... These searches with regard to persons who weren't even under investigation but just witnesses were performed with the utmost contempt for the dignity of their person and of their privacy. They were mistreated."
A fib. Ten members of the Criminal Police attached to the Public Prosecutor's Office have collaborated in the investigation; they are available not only for this investigation but also for the work of all 90 of Milan's public prosecutors. Last Friday the Flying Squad of Milan dispatched 30 police officers (including many women) to search the flats of ten of the Premier's female friends, habitués of Arcore. Mistreatment? Berlusconi is belied even by Giuseppe Spinelli, the accountant of Arcore, official paymaster of the Premier's female friends: "At 7:30 we found five Criminalpol police officers in the house. They weren't at all rude...."
9. "I'VE NEVER PAID A WOMAN"
The Premier says: "It's absurd just to think that I paid to have relations with a woman. It's something that never happened to me even once in my life. It's something that I would consider degrading for my dignity."
Patrizia D'Addario was paid previously, even if by Giampaolo Tarantini, to keep the head of government company in Putin's big bed at Palazzo Grazioli. The Milan investigation instead tells us how none of the girls invited to Arcore left the villa without an envelope containing a 500-euro banknote prepared by the house accountant. Even those, such as M. T., who were uninterested in money, found themselves being offered an envelope containing 500 euros. A poker chip. Nothing like the "7,000 euros" received by Ruby. And by Iris. And by Imma. And by Barbara.... It is sooner said what girl did not get paid than to list the names of those who lingered in the "bunga bunga" room or in the arms of the Dragon in exchange for payment. None of the girls who after dinner descended to the room below ground level of Villa San Martino went away empty-handed. It is useless to say how degraded the Premier's dignity appears.
10. "I DON'T HAVE TO FEEL ASHAMED"
The Premier says: "There was no abuse of power, there was no abetting of prostitution, much less involving minors. There was nothing for me to be ashamed of. There is just an extremely serious attack by some public prosecutors who have trampled on the laws for political purposes with great amplification by the media."
Berlusconi must not feel ashamed only over the dishonour that has upset the country and over the discredit that today defiles the premiership. On 28 May 2009, one month from the beginning of the Noemi affaire, he said: "I swear on the head of my children never having had 'spicy' relations with minors. If I were lying, I would resign immediately." Berlusconi must feel shame for the relations entertained from 2009 to 2010 with two minors (Noemi and Ruby). He must feel shame for having lied to the country. He must feel shame for not yet having resigned.
(January 21st 2011)
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