When he became Italy's prime minister a year ago, Silvio Berlusconi faced four criminal trials. Now just one charge, that of bribing judges, remains. Mr Berlusconi is very likely to be acquitted in three false-accounting cases against his companies because new legislation brought in by his government has put most types of false accounting by private companies into the civil rather than criminal category of misdemeanours (see our table). In any event, the cases would probably be set aside under a statute of limitation; other bills be- fore parliament are likely to ensure that the remaining case against Mr Berlusconi could drag on for years. And even if the verdict in that case eventually went against him, it is by no means certain that the public, apparently bored by the long-running saga of court cases involving their prime minister, would care. Moreover, Mr Berlusconi has happily avoided other legal entanglements that might have embarrassed him. It now looks unlikely that he will be questioned in court about his business past in two criminal trials of close colleagues, one of whom is accused of association with the Mafia. The judges, it seems, will accept that, as foreign minister as well as head of the government, he would quite simply be too busy to attend.
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