Berlusconi, Ruby ter and psychiatry
The Scratches of Damato
The asylum, however metaphorical, to which Silvio Berlusconi felt destined by that "broad and unlimited psychiatric expertise", as he defined it, ordered by the Milan court that has been trying him since 2018 for "induction to make statements false to the judicial authority ", he dissolved only formally with his proud resignation, as soon as communicated to the president of the seventh section, to ask for further postponements of hearings for health reasons in the continuation of the trial. Which therefore will continue in his absence, I do not know if ending quickly, and crossing who knows what political and institutional deadlines for the usual, presumed randomness, with an acquittal or a conviction, pessimistically more foreseen by the person concerned. According to which the very provision of that broad and unlimited psychiatric report, rather than a simple "medico-legal and cardiological" report, as Berlusconi wrote in the letter, would prove "an evident prejudice" towards him, and therefore a predisposition to condemn him.
The asylum, always metaphorical, for heaven's sake, thanks to the abolition ordered many years ago by the Basaglia law, remains open because I personally find it hard to understand, for example, the change that took place between May and September of this year in the line of the Milan Public Prosecutor, and pointed out in Berlusconi's letter.
In particular, the Public Prosecutor's Office headed by Francesco Greco, who is concluding his mandate amidst embarrassing controversies, if we do not want to better define them as disturbing, asked four months ago "the excerpt" of Berlusconi's position from the trial "by sharing – wrote the accused – the validity of the medical reasons ”set out in the reports filed in court. But on 8 September, on the occasion of another hearing in which Berlusconi felt prevented from attending for health reasons, between one check-up and another at the San Raffaele hospital, the prosecutor changed his attitude "with tones and methods that are truly unacceptable to me and to the doctors who have visited me many times ”, wrote the former prime minister.
What happened or could have happened between May and September to change opinions, moods and so on in the Milanese prosecutor's office to the point of making Berlusconi a possible mentally ill person? In a judgment shared by prosecutors and judges, the sheet by Giuliano Ferrara and Claudio Cerasa was given this answer: the will "more or unconscious memo" of both to "recover the" executioner "prestige of a judicial structure , the Milanese one, which is crossed by tensions and real scandals that have led to mutual complaints between magistrates who have held and still hold top positions ”.
The reference to the controversies already mentioned is evident, among which the experience of Francesco Greco at the Ambrosian Public Prosecutor's Office is ending, exploded in an interview with Corriere della Sera against the increasingly widespread "corporate" and "self-referential" character of the judiciary. This was followed, among other things, by a notice of lawsuit by Piercamillo Davigo on the Fatto Quotidiano . With whom Davigo himself collaborates: the "doctor Sottile" among the investigators of Clean Hands, who rose in the judicial career to become president of the section of the Cassation, finally landed at the Superior Council of the Judiciary, lapsed with retirement and now under investigation for the secret records of Eni's external lawyer Piero Amara on a business, political and judicial loggia, ended up in his drawers in the Palazzo dei Marescialli and finally landed in the newspapers.
"It may be that some unrepentant handcuff will fall for it, who believe the fable of a court that does not look at anyone in the face and of a Berlusconi who hides behind medical reports" to escape judgment and so on, they feared the sheet by opposing to this scenario a "so glaring truth" of arbitrariness as to "give hope that this time there are very few people who are stunned by these maneuvers, so insistent as to become almost cloying".
However, the entire history of this process known as Ruby ter belongs to the metaphorical asylum, and is divided into seven clips, versions and so on. It all starts with the suspicion warned and reported to the Milanese prosecutor in 2013 by the first instance judges who sentenced Berlusconi to 7 years for child prostitution, despite the allegedly false and remunerated testimonies of his victims or accomplices. But that sentence was denied by the acquittal the following year on appeal, the following year by the Supreme Court. Yet Berlusconi – unbelievable to say he is out of a metaphorical asylum – continued to be investigated and tried by induction – I repeat – to make false statements to the judicial authorities ". Which is a crime, sanctioned by article 377 bis of the penal code, for which there is a sentence of from 2 to 6 years in prison. The code also speaks of the possibility that the fact turns out to be an even "more serious" crime in the trial, I hope it cannot be configured as such due to the intention attributed to the "accused" Berlusconi, rightly or wrongly, by opponents and even by established friends, to participate at the age of 85 in the race for the Quirinale, when the race will officially open with the convocation of the joint Chambers for the election, with the competition of the regional delegates, of Sergio Mattarella's successor to the Presidency of the Republic. And so we enter another department of the increasingly metaphorical asylum.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/berlusconi-ruby-ter-e-la-psichiatria/ on Sat, 18 Sep 2021 06:05:29 +0000.