Trials and allegations involving Silvio Berlusconi persons (including Silvio Berlusconi) for having committed false accounting and embezzlement. If the embezzlement charges would be proven by the court, this part of guilt would however be granted impunity due to a 1988 amnesty for the crime. First Court: A "Prima facie" case was issued, but the magistrate decided to drop the charges. The state attorney refused to file the case and appealed against the ruling.<br> Appeal Court: statute of limitations expired before the appeal was completed so Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted. First Court: On 26 September 2005, Berlusconi was acquitted because the new law on false accounting makes
Helmut Kohl more than a year in January 2000, but he was partly rehabilitated in later years. The later Chancellor Angela Merkel started her political career as Kohl's protegée. Kohl was described as "the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century" by U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Kohl received the Charlemagne Prize in 1988 with François Mitterrand; in 1998 Kohl became the second person to be named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state or government. Following his death, Kohl was honored with the first ever European Act of State in