The European Court of
Human Rights on Wednesday held a hearing on Silvio Berlusconi's
appeal against a ban from him running for office following a
2013 tax-fraud conviction.
The Italian government respected the European Convention on
Human Rights, its representative Maria Giuliana Civinini told
the hearing.
"No violation can be attributed," Civinini said.
"The law was scrupulously respected".
The decision in 2013 to expel Berlusconi from parliament and
not to allow him to take part in elections for six years in
relation to a tax-fraud conviction was "not arbitrary but was
made at the end of a procedure that respected all the rights" of
the former prime minister, she said.
Berlusconi's lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said that a law that
ousted his client from the Senate and made him ineligible to run
for office was "not justice" as it was implemented
retroactively.
The so-called Severino anti-corruption law banning convicted
felons from holding public office "was implemented for facts
contested for the years 1995-1998, 15 years before the law was
adopted", the lawyer told the court in Strasbourg.
Berlusconi, he added, "was deprived of his seat with a vote
in a Senate composed in majority by his adversaries: this was
not justice but a Roman amphitheater in which a majority of
thumbs down or thumbs up decide whether one sinks or not".
The head of the Senate immunity panel, Dario Stefano, on
Berlusconi's lawyers' likening the upper house to a Roman
amphitheatre.
Stefano said the rules were respected "to the letter" and
Berlusconi's lawyers chose not to present their client's case.
"It's understandable that defence lawyers sometimes use
strong terms but that should never legitimise the use of
expressions not wholly appropriate, all the more so if referring
to Italian parliamentary institutions," he said.
The former premier was ousted from parliament in 2013 under
the 2012 Severino Law that prevents anyone sentenced to over two
years from holding or running for public office for at least six
years.
The law, named after then justice minister Paola Severino,
kicked in after the media billionaire was handed a definitive
conviction for tax fraud.
The three-time former premier and media tycoon was sentenced
to four years in prison for masterminding a tax-dodging strategy
by his Mediaset company, commuted to one year of community
service which he served between 2014 and 2015.
Berlusconi argues that Italy violated European legislation
by applying the 2012 law retroactively, thus imposing a harsher
penalty than was applicable at the time of the crime for which
he was convicted.
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