Minister's ex-husband has bribery conviction quashed

Published on Friday 26 February 2010 00:06

THE estranged husband of Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said last night he was "very relieved" following the decision by Italy's highest court to quash his bribery conviction.

Prosecutor Gianfranco Ciani insisted British lawyer was guilty of the offence, but said the 2009 verdict should be thrown out because of the length of time that had gone by.

In a statement released after the announcement, Mr Mills said he would now be able to "get back to a normal life".

Mr Mills was convicted in February 2009 of taking a 400,000 bribe from Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in 1997. The ruling means a corruption case against Mr Berlusconi could also now be dropped.

Mr Ciani insisted Mr Mills took the bribe, but said the conviction should be overturned because the "statute of limitations" had expired. Mr Mills had been facing four and a half years in jail.

He lodged a second appeal with the Cassation Court after a Milan appeals court rejected an earlier appeal in October.

Mr Mills, who separated from Ms Jowell, the former culture secretary, in 2006, was one of Mr Berlusconi's consultants on offshore tax havens.

The prosecution alleged Mr Berlusconi had paid Mr Mills for not revealing details of offshore companies during two previous trials in 1997 and 1998, in which he had appeared as an expert witness for the prime minister.

The charges stemmed from a letter that Mr Mills sent to a British accountant in 2004, in which he said the 400,000 payment had come from "Mr B".

Mr Mills initially admitted he had received money from Mr Berlusconi "in recognition" of the evidence he had given, but later said the money had come from the Italian shipping magnate Diego Attanasio.

Mr Berlusconi is charged with corrupting Mr Mills, in a parallel trial.

Both men denied the charges.