Immunity law struck down
Constitutional Court ruling will reopen Berlusconi trials
07 October, 18:47
(ANSA) - Rome, October 7 - Italy's Constitutional Court on Wednesday struck down a controversial immunity law shielding Premier Silvio Berlusconi from several trials was illegitimate.
In immediate reactions, politicians including centrist opposition figures said the ruling would not mean the premier had to resign or call a snap election.
But an opposition party said it was time for Berlusconi to ''pack his bags and clear out''. There has been intense international interest in the case amid speculation that, despite continuing high popularity ratings amid revelations about his private life, Berlusconi could be weakened by the Court ruling. But the premier, who has remained confident in the face of a stream of revelations about his private life and has consistently denied wrongdoing, vowed before the two-day hearing that he would continue in office even if he was forced to start frequenting courtrooms again. ''The government will carry its mission to term,'' he said.
The ruling, which will immediately reopen two trials involving the premier, was based on the argument that the Berlusconi government should have used a special Constitutional law to give the premier immunity.
The law, despite being modified compared to a previous version quashed in 2004, was also overturned because it denied the fundamental principle that everyone is equal before the law.
Berlusconi and his supporters characterised the Milan prosecutors' appeals as a continuing campaign of judicial persecution, abetted by left-leaning newspapers. In the first Milan case, the premier and media magnate was accused of bribing British corporate lawyer David Mills to hush up incriminating evidence in two previous trials. Mills has been convicted of perjury and sentenced to a four-and-a-half-year term which he is appealing. Berlusconi was originally a co-defendant but was removed from proceedings when the immunity law, pushed through as one of his government's first acts last year, came into effect. Mills denies wrongdoing, as does the premier in all his cases. The second Milan case concerns alleged irregularities in selling film rights. In a third case, a judge in Rome wants to know whether he can start considering whether Berlusconi should be sent to trial for allegedly attempting to bribe Senators to bring down Italy's previous centre-left government. When he framed the law for Italy's top four officials in April 2008, Justice Alfano said it was merely bringing Italian law into line with that in other European countries like France. The opposition claimed, on the contrary, that there is no other country that gives such immunity to heads of government, rather than heads of state such as presidents and monarchs. Berlusconi has been convicted in several graft cases but the convictions have been overturned because of the statute of limitations or because of law changes introduced by his governments.
