Berlusconi loses immunity from trial
Italy’s top court today overturned an immunity law shielding Premier Silvio Berlusconi from a corruption trial in Milan.
The law grants immunity from prosecution to the country’s four top office holders while in office. That includes the premier, the president of the republic and the two parliament speakers.
The trial in Milan is now expected to resume.
Despite the ruling Berlusconi insisted he will not resign.
Berlusconi spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said: “Berlusconi, the government and the majority will continue to govern.” He called the ruling “a political verdict”.
The Constitutional Court's 15 judges overturned the law that caused the suspension of a trial in which Berlusconi was charged with ordering the 1997 payment of at least $600,000 (€409,000) to British lawyer David Mills - the estranged husband of Britain's Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell - in exchange for the lawyer's false testimony at two hearings in other corruption cases in the 1990s.
The 2008 law was passed by Berlusconi’s conservatives while the premier was on trial in Milan.
The legislation also shielded the president of the republic and the two parliament speakers from prosecution. Berlusconi’s trial was suspended as a result of the law and opponents alleged the law was tailored to protect the premier.
Berlusconi denied the corruption charges, and his lawyers argued in court yesterday that he could not be a defendant and at the same time serve as premier.
The Constitutional Court said in a statement that after two days of deliberations it had found that the law violated the principle that all are equal before the law.
It rejected it on formal grounds because it was not passed with the lengthy procedure that must be used for any law concerning the constitution.
The law is an amended version of earlier legislation that was rejected by the Constitutional Court in 2004.
While Berlusconi’s portion of the trial was frozen when the immunity bill was passed, the proceedings continued for Mills. In February, he was convicted of corruption and sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Mills has maintained his innocence and said he would appeal.
Berlusconi had been acquitted or cleared in previous trials on various charges because the statute of limitations had expired.
