Democrazia Cristiana Tedesca

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Wed Jan 19 14:45:21 PST 2000


At 19:40 18/01/00 -0500, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
>On Tue, 18 Jan 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>>
>> It's amazing to me to hear what makes for a political money scandal
>> in Europe. What Kohl did is pretty much out in the open here in the
>> U.S.A.
>
>I think the soul of such scandals is never the money so much as the
>breaking of the law, no matter how trivial.

So how about planning to lay a few trip wires?

And then *not* forget all about it?

BTW, in connection with the need for a retirement resort for people like Pinochet and Kohl, I see poor Bettino Craxi has just had to pass away in Tunisia. Having been accepted as a Socialist that the Christian Democrats, could, shall we say, do business with, it was cruel that he got effectively banished, wasn't it?

I suppose there are more casinos in Tunisia than in St Helena.

from the BBC tonight:-

Fugitive Italian former prime minister Bettino Craxi

has died in Tunisia, aged 65.

...

Illegal financing

But he fell from grace suddenly and dramatically

during the huge "Tangentopoli" (Bribesville) scandal

which began in February 1992 when an associate

was caught taking a bribe.

The ensuing corruption scandals brought down

Italy's political old guard in the early 1990s.

Magistrates probed allegations that he had taken

millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen.

Support for the Socialists, once the nation's

third-largest party with up to 15% of the vote in the

late 1980s, fell away and the party later disbanded.

Mired in scandal, Mr Craxi was forced to resign as

head of the Socialist Party he dominated for 17

years.

...

After fleeing to Tunisia, Mr Craxi was tried in

absentia and twice convicted by Italian courts,

receiving a total of 27 years in prison, of which nine

years and eight months were upheld by appeal

courts.

In the first case, he was

sentenced to five and a

half years in jail in a

scandal over bribes paid

by insurance company

SAI to win an insurance

contract from state

energy group ENI.

The second case, in

which he was alleged to

have taken bribes for

himself and the Socialists

in exchange for

supporting firms' bids to build the Milan metro,

ultimately won Mr Craxi a four-year jail sentence

after crawling its way through the legal system.

He was declared an official fugitive from justice in

July 1995.

...

The Italian senate and

chamber of deputies,

upon hearing the news of

Mr Craxi's death,

immediately suspended its

session for 10 minutes.

Chief Vatican spokesman

Joaquin Navarro-Valls

said Pope John Paul II

had heard of Mr Craxi's

death and was praying for

him and his family.



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