“It seems to me that the decision taken by the court regarding the position of the representative of the government of India becoming a Civil Party was a political decision. It was taken so that no one should get the impression that Italy would not like to admit foreign governments when they are in court. As a matter of law, the documents they submitted fell short of the requirements provided by our law,” Professor Ennio Amodio, counsel for Mr. Giuseppe Orsi, former Chairman and CEO of Finmeccanica, told The Hindu .
“There is no proper certification of who he is exactly and who he represents –it is assumed he will represent the Indian government. We are obliged to accept his presence.......” Prof. Amodio said.
“The procedure that the court has adopted now is a special procedure, an “immediate” procedure. In Italy we have a mechanism called the preliminary hearing as it is called in England and the United States. In the procedure adopted the preliminary hearing is dropped and we go straight into the examination of the evidence on the basis of a request by the Prosecutor and an immediate summons for the trial. So this gives us no chance to scrutinise the evidence. This is why I have asked the court to declare this procedure as unconstitutional,” he said.
“There is not enough evidence. The tender process, how it was handled – there are no papers. We have no witnesses. So a lot of evidence is missing. The Prosecutor has to prove that there was corruption. They have to prove whether Air Marshal Tyagi was actually bribed. As far as we know everything was lawfully carried out. We contest that there was corruption at all.....”
“Mr. Orsi wanted to come today but we advised him to stay away since his presence is not needed. He will be present in court in September when the witnesses are called,” he added.
