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Berlusconi lawyer Mills guilty of taking bribe
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Berlusconi lawyer Mills guilty of taking bribe
AFP - Wednesday, February 18
MILAN (AFP) - - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's former tax lawyer, Britain's David Mills, was found guilty Tuesday of accepting a 600,000-dollar bribe and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail.
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Berlusconi, a self-made billionaire, is alleged to have given the money to Mills, one of his consultants on offshore tax havens, in exchange for false evidence provided at two earlier trials in the late 1990s.
Payment of a bribe has been denied by the 72-year-old Berlusconi, who is immune from prosecution under Italian law.
After the verdict and sentence were announced by a court in Milan, 64-year-old Mills issued a statement in London protesting his innocence and saying he was hopeful he would be cleared on appeal.
"I am naturally very disappointed by this verdict. I am innocent but this is a highly political case," he said.
"The judges have not yet given their reasons for their decision so I cannot say how they dealt with the prosecutor's own admission that he had no proof.
"I am hopeful that the verdict and sentence will be set aside on appeal and am told that I will have excellent grounds, and have every faith in my excellent lawyer, Federico Cecconi."
Cecconi, announcing plans to appeal, said the sentence ran "contrary to all logic and we are challenging it."
Mills, the estranged husband of British Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, once admitted receiving the money from Berlusconi but said it had been "in recognition" for his work.
He later recanted and said the money was a stipend paid to him by Italian shipbuilder Diego Attanasio.
Jowell herself was investigated over the affair by Britain's top civil servant, Sir Gus O'Donnell, after it emerged she had co-signed documents to secure a loan of some 400,000 pounds (565,000 dollars), allegedly paid off using the Italian money.
O'Donnell produced a report but said it was for then prime minister Tony Blair to take any decisions. Blair cleared her in March 2006 of breaching a ministerial code of conduct.
"This is a terrible blow to David and, although we are separated, I have never doubted his innocence," Jowell, speaking in London, said after the sentence and verdict were announced.
Mills expressed hope that Italy's protracted appeals process would see him cleared.
"The sentence does not become effective for any purpose until two levels of appeal have been concluded," his statement said.
"I have been advised not to make any further public comment on the case until it has finally come to an end. Meanwhile, I am getting on with my professional life."
Mills and Berlusconi, along with a dozen other defendants, are also accused of tax fraud in the purchase of film rights in the United States by Mediaset, the television group owned by the Berlusconi family.
Mills is being tried separately in the case since Berlusconi is shielded from prosecution while in office under a law passed shortly after he returned to power in May 2008 with a comfortable parliamentary majority.
The law grants political immunity to the incumbents of Italy's four top jobs: prime minister, president and the speakers of the two houses of parliament.
Berlusconi has repeatedly accused magistrates, notably in his native Milan, of conducting a politically motivated campaign against him.
He was elected to a third stint as prime minister last year and his coalition had a strong enough majority to pass the controversial proposals, which he had tried unsuccessfully to get passed in previous terms in office.
The media magnate's battles with the law have marked his public life since he burst onto the political scene in the mid-1990s.
A self-made billionaire, Berlusconi has faced charges including corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegally financing political parties.
Although some initial judgments have gone against him he has never been definitively convicted.
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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's former tax lawyer, Britain's David Mills, pictured in 2006, was found guilty Tuesday of accepting a 600,000-dollar bribe and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail.
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