Swiss focus on legal cooperation in talks with Italy

Opposition parliamentarians say the new legislation will grant Berlusconi immunity from prosecution Keystone Archive

A Swiss delegation has been holding talks with Italy to assess the impact of new Italian legislation on legal cooperation between both countries.

The high-level delegation, headed by the Swiss justice ministry director, Heinrich Koller, was seeking to determine the status of a landmark 1998 cross-border judicial agreement between Italy and Switzerland.

Under new Italian laws, Rome can now dismiss the findings of investigations carried out by other countries, if their procedures do not correspond with those of Italy. The new measures could put an end to several judicial investigations, notably against the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi and his Fininvest media empire.

Folco Galli, spokesman for the Swiss justice ministry, said the delegation would be attempting to find out “the consequences of the change in Italian law” for judicial cooperation with Switzerland.

“If the Italians have introduced more complicated proceedings, this is contrary to the spirit of the agreement as well as to the European convention on mutual assistance,” he said.

The Geneva public prosecutor, Bernard Bertossa, told swissinfo the law has already affected the transfer of legal documents between the two countries.

“The law is applicable to evidence which has already been sent to Italy,” Bertossa said.

“This means for example that bank documents which Switzerland sent to Italy several years ago in cases which are ongoing will not be used because they don’t respect Italian law: that’s the main problem.”

Spirit of the agreement

Oliver Meiler, a Swiss journalist based in Rome, believes Italy has reneged on the spirit of the 1998 agreement.

“The new Italian legislation contradicts what the United States decided to do after September 11 – namely, push for better trans-national cooperation regarding enquiries about terrorism networks,” Meiler told swissinfo.

Meiler points out the 1998 agreement was signed by Switzerland at the request of the then centre-left government in Italy which favoured closer legal cooperation with Switzerland.

The government has since been replaced by a new right-wing administration headed by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

“Since Berlusconi’s election in May 2001, the government has changed position and turned the treaty into its pure opposite,” Meiler said.

Bertossa argues the new legislation is designed to protect the careers of senior Italian politicians.

“The new legislation has obviously been made to help people who have committed crimes against Italian law…and we are talking about important cases and not small criminality,” Bertossa said.

“It’s also well known that some of these cases are concerned with investigations into people who are not very far from some members of the new government in Italy,” he added.

Purpose of the deal

When the agreement was signed three years ago, authorities in Italy and Switzerland hailed the deal as a way of simplifying cross-border cooperation between the two countries.

“But the Italians have now gone completely the other way, imposing formal certification for all documents which makes cooperation much more complicated than it was even before the treaty was signed,” Meiler told swissinfo.

The delegation to Rome is the latest in a series of representations made by the Swiss authorities to the Italian government concerning the implementation of the treaty.

Earlier this year, the Swiss justice minister, Ruth Metzler, made it clear to her Italian counterpart, Roberto Castelli, that the new legislation dealt a serious blow to judicial cooperation.

Outcome of talks

Meiler believes the Swiss delegation is unlikely to return from Italy with any assurances concerning the implementation of the 1998 treaty.

“The Swiss cannot do very much because the Italian parliament has voted for this law which legitimises it and I don’t think a delegation from Bern will affect Berlusconi’s view,” he said.

Bertossa agrees with this assessment, and adds that Switzerland alone is powerless to put pressure on the Italian authorities.

“Even if the Swiss government decides to ask for explanations, politically Switzerland is not in a position to exert any pressure,” he said.

“But more pressure could be put on Italy by the European Union to make this country respect the rules which are designed to facilitate cooperation and not to make it more difficult.”

swissinfo with agencies