Italian court clears Berlusconi of false accounting charges News
Italian court clears Berlusconi of false accounting charges

[JURIST] Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [official profile] was acquitted of false accounting charges by an Italian court Monday. Prosecutors had charged the leader and media empire mogul with numerous counts of false accounting, including false bookkeeping charges, in connection to his alleged involvement in a plot to illegally move money from his media holding company, All Iberian, to fund the Socialist Party of former Italian Premier Bettino Craxi [BBC profile]. The court found that Berlusconi could not be charged with the crimes under Italian law because of changes made 2001 that decriminalized some false accounting crimes. In May, the European Court of Justice ruled [JURIST report] that EU law could not overrule Italian law in the matter. Berlusconi has been tried in several corruption cases, and has always maintained his innocence, arguing that all charges have been politically motivated. Reuters has more.