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BERLUSCONI'S LAWYER CONVICTED
David Mills 'disappointed' by prison sentence in bribe case
(Updates previous coverage).
(ANSA) - London, February 17 - British corporate lawyer David Mills said he was ''very disappointed'' after a Milan court sentenced him to a four-and-a-half-year prison term for taking a bribe to hush up incriminating evidence in trials involving Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
''I am naturally very disappointed by this verdict,'' Mills said in a statement.
''I am innocent, but this is a highly political case. I am hopeful that the verdict and sentence will be set aside on appeal, and am told that I will have excellent grounds,'' said Mills, who had insisted the $600,000 sum came from a Neapolitan businessman.
Under Italian law Mills is entitled to two appeals and the sentence does not become effective until these have been exhausted.
Mills said he had been advised not to make further public comments until the appeals process was completed.
''Meanwhile I am getting on with my professional life,'' he said.
Mills' estranged wife, British Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, described the verdict as ''a terrible blow for David''.
''Even though we are separated, I have never doubted his innocence,'' she said.
The pair's marriage broke down in the wake of media pressure after the story came out.
Mills' lawyer, Federico Cecconi, said the sentence was ''illogical''.
Judge Nicoletta Gandus will present reasons for the verdict in a written document at a later date.
Mills exercised his right not to appear in person at the trial.
Berlusconi was previously a co-defendant with Mills in the trial but was struck out of proceedings after an immunity law passed in July by his government suspended his involvement in the case while in office.
The prosecutor in the case has challenged the immunity law in the Constitutional Court.
OPPOSITION CALLS FOR BERLUSCONI TO RESIGN.
News of Mills' conviction in parliament brought calls from opposition politicians for Berlusconi to explain himself.
''In a normal country the premier would already have resigned,'' said Italy of Values (IDV) leader Antonio Di Pietro.
''If Mills has been condemned as corrupt, that means someone was corrupted, but someone else did the corrupting,'' said the former graft-busting prosecutor.
Alessandro Pignatiello of the Italian Communists' Party echoed calls for the premier to ''pack his bags''.
''Mills hasn't been found guilty of stealing sweets from a stranger. Why should he be condemned and his corruptor get off free?'' she said.
A former lawyer for Berlusconi and now an MP in his People of Freedom party, Gaetano Pecorella said the Mills verdict was ''only to be expected''.
''The court's judge is very clearly against Silvio Berlusconi in her political orientations,'' he said.
''Issuing this verdict was perhaps one way of condemning Berlusconi morally when it wasn't possible to do so physically,'' he said.
Last year Berlusconi's legal team attempted to have Gandus removed from the trial on the grounds that she was biased against him and had repeatedly expressed thoughts that revealed ''serious enmity'' towards the premier.
Italy's supreme court rejected the case last month, saying that Gandus's professional conduct both inside and outside the courtroom had been ''correct''.
LETTER SAID MONEY WAS A 'GIFT'.
Prosecutors said Mills had received a $600,000 bribe to hush up incriminating evidence in corruption trials against the premier in 1997 and 1998. In a letter he sent to his accountant in 2004, Mills said the payment was a ''gift'' and that he had saved Berlusconi ''from a great deal of trouble''. ''I told no lies but I turned some very tricky corners,'' the letter said. Mills claims the $600,000 came from another former client, Neapolitan businessman Diego Attanasio.
In a statement presented to the court last month in which Mills denied wrongdoing, he said that both Berlusconi and Attanasio, ''have been victims of my mistakes, although this was not my intention''. ''I have conducted my business badly and I have caused a lot of annoyance to people who did not deserve such problems in any way. But I have never been bribed by anyone,'' he said.
Photo: Judge Nicoletta Gandus reads out Mills' sentence in court Tuesday.
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