Rome - Italy's top appeals court, the Cassation, Friday upheld a ruling in April that acquitted former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of corruption charges stemming from 1980s privatization deal. Following two hours of deliberations, the Cassation rejected an appeal by Milanese prosecutors against Berlusconi's acquittal issued by a Milan appeals court on April 27.
Italy's justice system allows both prosecutors and defendants to appeal twice against sentences and Friday's decision by the Cassation represents the final ruling in the case.
Dating back to the 1980s, well before Berlusconi's 1994 decision to enter politics, the case revolves around the privatization of SME, a food conglomerate.
While welcoming Friday's ruling, a lawyer representing Berlusconi, Gaetano Pecorella said the former premier and current leader of Italy's conservative opposition was "owed an apology".
"Yes in the end Berlusconi was found not to be involved in corruption through this sentence which has definitively closed the SME case. But these have been 20 years of suffering that have scarred the history of this country," Pecorella told the Adnkronos news agency. Prosecutors charged Berlusconi had bribed judges in Rome through his Fininvest company in order to stop a business rival from buying SME.
They had demanded a five-year prison sentence for the magnate- turned-politician.
While judges found no evidence that Berlusconi had known about the bribes, his corporate lawyer at the time, Cesare Previti, was found guilty of corrupting Renato Squillante and other Rome judges in a related trial.
Berlusconi had always maintained his innocence, accusing prosecutors of orchestrating a political vendetta against him.
The trial had initially been blocked in 2004 by a bill making it impossible for prosecutors to appeal a "not guilty" verdict. The bill, which was drafted by Pecorella, who was part of Berlusconi's defence team as well as a parliamentarian elected in the then premier's Forza Italia party.
The bill, approved while Berlusconi was still in power, was eventually cancelled after it was deemed unconstitutional by Italy's highest court.
