Berlusconi firm fined 560 mn euros in bribery appeal (AFP)

MILAN (AFP) – A Milan court ordered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest company Saturday to pay rival media group CIR 560 million euros after it bribed a judge to approve a company takeover.

The Milan appeals court reduced by a quarter the original 750-million-euro ($1-billion) damages claim that a civil court had ordered the holding company to pay in October 2009, the ANSA news agency reported.

This was compensation for Fininvest wresting control of the leading Mondadori publishing house from Compagnie Industriali Riunite (CIR) in 1990.

A judge ruled in 2009 that Berlusconi was "co-responsible" for the bribery of a judge who decided in favour of Fininvest in the takeover battle.

The judge was convicted of corruption in 2007 and sentenced to two years and nine months in prison, while the Fininvest lawyer who bribed him was given a sentence of one year and six months.

CIR, whose honorary president is Berlusconi rival Carlo de Benedetti, controlled the newsweekly L'Espresso and the left-leaning daily newspaper La Repubblica, both avid chroniclers of the sex scandals that have been dogging the Italian premier.

In an appeal by Fininvest, judges on Saturday adjusted the fine and ruled that the damages incurred by CIR amounted to 540 million euros as of the date of the initial judgment, and a total 560 million (800 million dollars) with interest.

"Our advocates are looking into a further appeal," the prime minister's daughter and Fininvest president Marina Berlusconi said after the ruling.

"We are convinced we are in the right, we will not let ourselves be intimidated," she said while denouncing the damages figure as "double the value of Fininvest's stake in Mondadori".

The fine was payable immediately, the judges said.

"It's a hard blow for Fininvest, financially and economically, as the sentence recognises the group's responsibility for corruption," said Franco Pavoncello.

The ruling also represents a major setback for Berlusconi who on Tuesday withdrew a controversial law proposal to suspend all company fines above 10 million euros imposed by lower courts and over 20 million by appeals courts pending a final ruling by the country's highest court.

The proposal, included at the last minute in an austerity plan as it was to go before parliament for debate, was widely criticised as a bid to shield Fininvest from paying any fine the appeals judges may impose.

He defended the proposed amendment as a means of protecting companies from financial troubles caused by "erroneous" court judgments, and said workers in companies that flounder under such fines should blame opposition parties for their "shameful" resistance to the now cancelled measure.

Analysts said Saturday that Berlusconi would survive politically in the short term, but that he had no political future as he himself had announced this week that he would not run again in 2013 elections.

"Neither Berlusconi nor (his Northern League ally) Bossi has a future in the long-term, so they are not worried about what will happen in 2013, they continue to move ahead trying to gain time," said Franco Pavoncello, a political science professor at the American University of Rome, predicting a "status quo" in Italian politics.

Political scientist Giacomo Marramao of Rome III university agreed, explaining that "the problem is there is no unity on the Italian left, which does not have a coherent line".

Berlusconi is currently facing three trials, including one for allegedly paying to have sex with a Moroccan girl nicknamed "Ruby" when she was just 17 years old, and another for bribing a witness to lie about his business dealings.

Berlusconi cannot be prosecuted in the Mondadori case, as the facts legally prescribed in 2001 -- meaning the window-period for legal action had expired.

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Greek ministers appeal to MPs to back austerity plan (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek ministers urged wavering members of the ruling Socialist party on Saturday to do their duty in a knife-edge vote in parliament next week and back painful austerity measures that lenders demand as the price for fresh bailout loans.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos offered to talk to any MP who might have concerns. "I believe that the sense of responsibility will ultimately prevail, the God of Greece is great," he said on TV station Alter.

With Prime Minister George Papandreou's majority down to a handful of votes, one deputy from his PASOK party said on Friday he would vote against the measures, joining another party rebel who announced his opposition earlier this month.

The mix of spending cuts, state selloffs and tax hikes demanded by international lenders to reduce Greece's enormous public debt has caused bitter resentment among ordinary Greeks, who have taken to the streets in daily protests.

A two-day general strike is planned next week to coincide with the votes, following a rolling series of strikes at companies including Greece's dominant electricity producer PPC, which is slated for privatisation next year.

Unable to borrow on the markets because of the ruined state of its public finances, Greece depends on international support to avert bankruptcy in the next few days, an event that could plunge the global economy into turmoil.

But international lenders have demanded a clear commitment to reform and if parliament fails to back either of two key austerity votes on June 29 and 30, the EU and the IMF may refuse to release a vital 12-billion euro funding that Greece needs immediately or to approve a new bailout package.

Athens accepted a package of 110 billion euros of EU/IMF loans in May 2010 but now needs a second bailout of a similar size to meet its financial obligations until the end of 2014, when it hopes to return to capital markets for funding.

Justice Minister Miltiadis Papaioannou urged his fellow MPs to back the unpopular measures. "They must shut their ears to all the criticism they are hearing and do their duty," he said in an interview on TV station Mega.

Despite heavy pressure from European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the conservative New Democracy opposition party, has refused to support the package, meaning two or three votes either way could decide the outcome.

Papandreou's government now has 155 seats in the 300-strong parliament. Austerity measures have cost the Socialists five defections since their October 2009 election victory with a majority of 160 MPs.

The embattled prime minister last week sacrificed his previous finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, in a reshuffle to smooth the passage of the austerity plan but opinion polls still show him trailing the opposition.

Papandreou's MPs solidly backed the new government in a vote of confidence on Wednesday. But doubters maintain their opposition to higher taxes and the planned sale of shares in some state-controlled companies.

"Shops are shutting down every day and we are taking anti-growth measures," party maverick Thomas Robopoulos, a car dealer from Greece's second city, Thessaloniki, and one of the few businessmen in parliament told Reuters.

Austerity measures have pushed Greece into its deepest recession in 37 years, with GDP declining more than 4 percent last year. Unemployment has surged to a record 16.2 percent in March with youth jobless rates now at 43 percent.

Venizelos acknowledged that many of the measures he agreed with inspectors from the EU and the IMF late on Thursday were unfair and harsh, but said they were necessary to stave off default.

(Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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