Ruby ter, Berlusconi: "Trial ahead in my absence. Damaging psychiatric report"

• Ruby Ter.

  Milan Court orders medical report on Berlusconi's conditions

• Ruby ter trial, defense Berlusconi submits request for postponement for health reasons

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September 16, 2021

For Silvio Berlusconi, the decision of the Milan judges in the Ruby ter case to submit him to an "unlimited psychiatric examination" is "detrimental to my history and my integrity", as well as an "obvious prejudice towards me". The former prime minister writes this in a statement filed with the president of the college, explaining that "I cannot therefore accept this decision" and stating that "we proceed, therefore, in my absence to the celebration of a process" which he defines as "unfair".

"The hypothesis of undergoing a broad and unlimited psychiatric assessment by the Court - writes Berlusconi in the declaration filed today, through his lawyers, to the president of the seventh criminal board Marco Tremolada - demonstrates, for what I have done in life in multiple sectors including entrepreneurship, sport and politics, an evident prejudice towards me and well makes me understand what the final outcome of this right process will also be ".   

"I cannot therefore accept - explains the leader of FI - this decision, which is detrimental to my history and my integrity. Therefore, in my absence, we proceed to the celebration of a process, which should not even have begun, in the knowledge that even afterwards the absolute correctness of my behavior will be recognized and I will be acquitted of all charges ".   

Just yesterday afternoon the judges appointed a panel of experts, after having ordered the medical examination on 8 September following another instance of legitimate impediment for health reasons by the former premier. And they gave the experts time, until next November 5, to establish whether or not Silvio Berlusconi's health conditions, including mental health, allow him to participate in the Ruby ter trial in which he is accused with 28 other people.

Now the letter with which Berlusconi says to go ahead with the trial in his "absence", because the report is "harmful" and shows "obvious prejudice".

The "Prosecutor's Office during the hearing on 8 September, in tones and ways that are truly unacceptable to me and the doctors who have visited me for many times, asked to disregard" the conclusions of the medical reports of the defense, which in the hearing at the end of May they had led to a long postponement of the trial, and "to proceed further".

Silvio Berlusconi writes this in the statement to the judges of the Ruby ter case.

For the former prime minister, the decision to submit him not only to a "cardiological" but also a "psychiatric" assessment is "beyond all logic" and "completely incongruous with respect to my history and my present".

After Berlusconi's note, no appraisal, a hearing to be fixed

With Silvio Berlusconi's declaration in which he asks that the Ruby Ter trial "proceed in his absence", the prerequisites of the medico-legal, cardiological and even psychiatric report ordered yesterday by the Court of Milan to assess any "impeding conditions" to the participation of the Forza Italia leader in the trial. This is what is learned in judicial circles. The note addressed to the President of the Seventh Criminal Section, in fact, cancels the request for legitimate impediment for health reasons presented by Berlusconi's defense on 8 September last. The trial will therefore resume regularly in a hearing still to be fixed before the one already scheduled for November 17, in which the parties would have had to discuss the appraisal.