A Milan appeals court on Saturday ordered Silvio Berlusconi's holding company to pay 560 million euros ($801 million) in compensation to rival CIR, dealing a further blow to the weakened Italian prime minister. The appeals court's ruling acknowledged that a 1991 takeover battle for leading Italian publisher Arnoldo Mondadori Editore was marred by corruption but cut a previous compensation order by around a quarter.
Berlusconi tried this week to pass a measure that would have suspended the penalty but had to back off because of a lack of support from coalition members and a public outcry. Berlusconi's Fininvest holding won control of Mondadori in the early 1990s at the expense of CIR, thanks to the ruling of a Rome judge who was later found guilty of corruption.
In 2009 a Milan court ordered Fininvest to pay 749.9 million euros in damages to CIR. Fininvest, which controls Italy's biggest private broadcaster Mediaset , appealed against the ruling. Fininvest Chairman Marina Berlusconi said in a statement the group would now take the case to Italy's top appeals court.
"We are certain we are in the right and we must believe our reasons will eventually be recognised," she said, adding this was the latest episode in a years-long "wild aggression" against her father. The verdict has immediate effect but Fininvest could ask the court to suspend the payment until the final ruling.
A provision inserted this week into a package of budget measures would have forced appeal judges to suspend compensation orders for more than 20 million euros until a final verdict, on payment of a guarantee. The provision was pulled before the decree was signed off.
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