INES TABUSSO
00domenica 1 ottobre 2006 23:07
Pare che, dopo essere rimasta per parecchi mesi sul mercato, la casa di Kentish Town del ministro Tessa Jowell e dell'avvocato David Mills (quella del famoso mutuo) abbia trovato un acquirente.
Intanto Mills ha rifiutato di farsi intervistare dai giornalisti della BBC che, per il programma "Panorama", stanno realizzando una trasmissione sul caso che lo ha coinvolto insieme all'ex presidente del Consiglio Berlusconi.
L'altra sera l'avvocato Mills ha dichiarato: "E' un'autentica vergogna che la BBC debba fare un programma di questo tipo che, se io dovessi affrontare un processo in Inghilterra, sarebbe impossibile".
Sarebbe certamente impossibile perche' un processo in Inghilterra verrebbe deciso da una giuria popolare che potrebbe venire influenzata dal programma. Nessun rischio invece per un processo che, se ci sara', si svolgera' in Italia, dove ci si avvale di giudici tecnici.
cfr.:
The Sunday Times
October 01, 2006
Jowell sells house at centre of ‘bribe’ probe
Dipesh Gadher Media Correspondent
TESSA JOWELL, the culture secretary, is poised to sell the £950,000 north London home which came close to ending her ministerial career.
Jowell and her estranged husband, David Mills, are believed to have accepted an offer of about £910,000 for the Kentish Town property which has languished on the market since the couple split in March.
Jowell was drawn into the scandal surrounding Mills, a corporate lawyer, after it emerged that she had allowed their four-bedroom Victorian terraced house to be used in a complex financial deal. The Sunday Times revealed in February that Jowell had signed a loan document relating to the home that enabled Mills to bring an alleged bribe of £350,000 into Britain.
Italian prosecutors claim that the money was paid by Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, for help from Mills in two corruption hearings against the politician. Mills denies this and insists that the money did not come from Berlusconi.
Without Jowell’s co-operation her husband would not have been able to raise a loan on the jointly owned property which enabled him to bring the Italian money onshore.
The house sale comes as the BBC prepares to broadcast a Panorama investigation into Mills. Insiders claim that while he will be “taken apart”, Jowell — who is on the brink of announcing a rise in the corporation’s licence fee — is expected to escape lightly.
When the couple announced their separation, friends of Jowell claimed that she felt betrayed by Mills’s actions. They said he had kept her in the dark about the bribery allegations.
Sceptics claimed that the split had been deliberately orchestrated to save Jowell’s ministerial career. However, the sale of the couple’s home would suggest otherwise. Mills may use his share of the sale to fund his legal battle in Italy. Next month he is due to stand trial alongside Berlusconi and 13 others over an alleged £41m tax fraud. All the defendants deny wrongdoing.
Mills acted for the former Italian prime minister for more than 20 years, setting up offshore companies for him in the early 1990s. Prosecutors in Milan have also called for Mills and Berlusconi to be tried in a separate case involving the £350,000 alleged bribe.
Mills has refused to be interviewed for the Panorama programme, which is due to be broadcast next Sunday. Last night he said: “It’s utterly deplorable that the BBC should do a programme of this kind which would be impossible if (I was facing) an English trial.”