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Financial Times
Italian premier's brother wants plea bargain in corruption case
22-04-2002
Milan, 22 April: Paolo Berlusconi, the brother of Premier Silvio Berlusconi, and some 30 other defendants today asked to plea bargain corruption charges, offering to pay some 52 million euros in damages to local authorities in the north. The case stems from an inquiry into the 1992-96 activities of Simec, the company responsible for running the Milan waste disposal plant of Cerro Maggiore.
Paolo Berlusconi was a partner in Simec until November 1995 and is accused of overcharging Milan city council and the region of Lombardy for the disposal of local waste from 1992 until his departure.
At the preliminary hearing this morning, Berlusconi's lawyer said his client would plea bargain the charges to a jail term that could be suspended and the payment of 52 million euros to Milan city council, the regional government of Lombardy and several other local city councils. "By doing this, we hope we can close the book on this case once and for all," said lawyer Oreste Dominioni. Berlusconi is expected to put up most of the money and Milan city council will be the main beneficiary.
The premier's brother and the other defendants are accused of corruption, tax evasion, false accounting and embezzlement of public funds and were ordered to stand trial last month. Dominioni stressed that the false accounting charges would be dismissed, thanks to a controversial law passed by the Berlusconi government reducing false accounting from a crime to a misdemeanour. The court decided to adjourn proceedings until 20 May. The managing director of Simec, Luigi Ciapparelli, committed suicide in February 1997, after the plant was closed down due to popular protest. Another defendant in the case is Guido Podesta', the deputy speaker of the European Parliament and a member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
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