Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995,2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013 and has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019,and previously from 1999 to 2001.
Forza Italia was a centre-right political party in Italy with liberal-conservative,Christian-democratic,liberal,social-democratic and populist tendencies. Its leader was Silvio Berlusconi,who served as Prime Minister of Italy four times.
Marcello Dell'Utri is a convicted mafia criminal,a former Italian politician and senior advisor to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Formerly Senator in the Italian Senate. Dell'Utri has been found guilty of tax fraud,false accounting,and complicity in conspiracy with the Sicilian Mafia;the conviction for the last charge has been upheld on 9 May 2014 by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation which sentenced Dell'Utri to seven years in prison. The conviction is final and cannot be further appealed. The third criminal section of Palermo's Appellate Court declared Dell'Utri a fugitive in May 2014,when it was discovered he had fled the country ahead of the final court decision. After being detained in Lebanon,on 13 June 2014 Dell'Utri was extradited to Italy where he is currently serving his seven years prison term. He has been further sentenced in April 2018 to 12 years due to the State-Mafia Pact.
Trials and allegations involving Silvio Berlusconi have been extensive and include abuse of office,bribery and corruption of police officers,judges and politicians,collusion,defamation,embezzlement,extortion,false accounting,mafia,money laundering,perjury,tax fraud,underage prostitution influence and witness tampering.
Filippo Mancuso was an Italian judge and politician. In 1995 he was Italy's Minister of Justice in the government of Lamberto Dini. The Italian Senate voted a motion of no confidence against him and this fact was the first time during the republican period. The left wing and Lega Nord complained about the review of the Mani pulite pool during Tangentopoli. He was elected for the first time as deputy in 1996 Italian general election with Forza Italia party and he was confirmed in the 2001 general elections. He left Forza Italia in 2002,because he was not elected to the Constitutional Court of Italy because of opposition of the left wing. Mancuso agreed with Silvio Berlusconi to nominate another person for the Supreme Court,possibly Mario Serio,but then Forza Italia denoted Romano Vaccarella,a close friend of Cesare Previti. After 2006 Mancuso retired to private life until his death
The People of Freedom was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL,launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007,was initially a federation of political parties,notably including Forza Italia and National Alliance,which participated as a joint election list in the 2008 general election. The federation was later transformed into a party during a party congress on 27–29 March 2009. The party's leading members included Angelino Alfano,Renato Schifani,Renato Brunetta,Roberto Formigoni,Maurizio Sacconi,Maurizio Gasparri,Mariastella Gelmini,Antonio Martino,Giancarlo Galan,Maurizio Lupi,Gaetano Quagliariello,Daniela Santanchè,Sandro Bondi,and Raffaele Fitto.
Giuseppe Piromalli,is an Italian criminal known as a member of the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria. He succeeded his father Giuseppe Piromalli as head of the family clan that controls the port of Gioia Tauro and is one of the major powers in the 'Ndrangheta. He became a member of La Provincia,a provincial commission of the 'Ndrangheta,formed at the end of the Second 'Ndrangheta war in September 1991 to avoid further internal conflicts.
Renato Maria Giuseppe Schifani is an Italian politician. A prominent member of the now-defunct centre-right People of Freedom,he joined the New Centre-Right party in 2013,but he left it in 2016 for Forza Italia,the People of Freedom's successor. From 29 April 2008 to 14 March 2013 he was president of the Italian Senate. Schifani was born in Palermo.
Raffaele Fitto is an Italian politician and a member of the European Parliament.
The Spartacus Maxi-Trial(Italian:Processo Spartacus) was a series of criminal trials,each specifically directed against the activities of the powerful Casalesi clan of the Camorra. The trial was opened at the Corte d'Assise of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Caserta. It was named after the historical gladiator,Spartacus,and so named in recognition of the need to fight a revolt in the Casalesi clan's territory. The trial was initially chaired by its president,Catello Marano on 1 July 1998. It continued just over ten years,until its final verdict was eventually read on 19 June 2008.
Gaspare Spatuzza is a Sicilian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He was an assassin for the brothers Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano who headed the Mafia family of Brancaccio. After the arrest of the Gravianos in January 1994,he apparently succeeded them as the regent of the Mafia family. He was arrested in 1997 and started to cooperate with the judicial authorities in 2008. In his testimony he claimed that media tycoon and prime minister Silvio Berlusconi made a deal with the Sicilian Mafia in 1993 that put the country "in the hands" of Cosa Nostra.
Carlo De Benedetti is an Italian industrialist,engineer,and publisher. He is both an Italian and naturalized Swiss citizen. He was awarded the Order of Merit for Labour by the Italian state in 1983,the Medaglia d'oro ai benemeriti della cultura e dell'arte and the Legion d'Honneur in 1987.
The political career of Silvio Berlusconi began in 1994,when Berlusconi entered politics for the first time serving intermittent terms as Prime Minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995,2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011,his career was racked with controversies and trials;amongst these was his failure to honour his promise to sell his personal assets in Mediaset,the largest television broadcaster network in Italy,in order to dispel any perceived conflicts of interest.
Umberto Bellocco is an Italian criminal and a member of the 'Ndrangheta,a mafia-type organisation in Calabria. He was the capobastone and founder of the Bellocco 'ndrina from the 1960s until his arrest in 1993.
Forza Italia is a centre-right political party in Italy,whose ideology includes elements of liberal conservatism,Christian democracy and liberalism. FI is a member of the European People's Party. Silvio Berlusconi is the party's leader and president,while Antonio Tajani functions as vice president and national coordinator. Other leading members include Elisabetta Casellati,as well as ministers Renato Brunetta,Mara Carfagna and Mariastella Gelmini.
Umberto Bossi is an Italian politician and former leader of the Lega Nord,a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy or Padania. He is married to the Sicilian Manuela Marrone and has four sons.
The term State-Mafia Pact defines the negotiation between important Italian functionaries and Cosa Nostra members,that began after the period of the 1992 and 1993 terror attacks by the Sicilian Mafia with the aim to reach a deal and so to stop the attacks. In summary,the supposed cornerstone of the deal was the end of the so-called "massacres season" in return for detention measures attenuation expected by Italian article 41-bis,thanks to which Antimafia pool led by Giovanni Falcone condemned hundreds of mafia members to the so-called "hard prison regime". The negotiation hypothesis has been the subject of long judicial investigations—not yet concluded—and some journalistic investigations.
Donato Bruno was an Italian politician.
Sergio De Gregorio is an Italian politician and journalist.
A five-part abrogative referendum was held in Italy on 12 June 2022. Voters were asked to decide on the repeal of five articles or decrees relating to the functioning of the Italian judicial system. Each of the five questions was submitted by nine Italian regions,all governed by the centre-right coalition.
