Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, took a heavy blow on Tuesday when Italy’s constitutional court ruled that a law which gave him immunity from prosecution last year was unconstitutional.
The decision means the billionaire prime minister will once again face a corruption trial which was suspended last June, just as Italy took over the European Union presidency.
The law, rushed through in record time, caused outcry since it appeared to be principally designed to save Berlusconi from a possible corruption conviction while Italy was leading Europe.
The constitutional court ruled that the law, which gave immunity to Italy’s top five state officials as long as they held office, violated the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.
The ruling cannot be appealed against. Berlusconi had given no comment by late last night.
His opponents were in raptures. ”It’s good news because we have always said that this law is unconstitutional and immoral,” said a former anti-corruption judge, Antonio di Pietro. Di Pietro had spent months immediately after the immunity law was passed gathering signatures needed to force a referendum on it.
”We expect not just sobriety and rigour from the government but also an end to this inventing legislative solutions to problems that regard individuals within the government,” said Vannino Chiti of the Democrats of the Left.
”The government ought to be busying itself with the country’s problems which need attention and intervention.”
Berlusconi, who has constantly denied the corruption charges and claims to be the victim of a coup plot by ”communist judges”, had argued the immunity law was needed to bring Italy in line with legislation elsewhere in Europe.
The court ruling is a sign that the tide is turning on Berlusconi, who was heavily criticised for weak and not always sufficiently serious leadership during his six-month turn at the helm of the European Union. He received a blow in December when Italy’s president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, refused to approve new media legislation amid concerns it was ”tailor-made” for the prime minister and unconstitutional.
The collapse of the multinational food giant Parmalat, in which â,¬10-billion has disappeared down a global accounting black hole, has caused strains within the government and threatens to damage the already struggling Italian economy.
”I think Ciampi’s decision really showed that institutions can really stand up in Italy. He led the way to show people that if they feel they cannot accept something, they should come out and say it,” said a political analyst, Franco Pavoncello. ”That has not always happened here.
”The EU presidency was not something to write home about in the end. There are serious splits within the government. The political territory is becoming a lot less safe, a lot less comfortable for a lot of people here.”
The media tycoon turned politician, who is Italy’s richest man, is accused of bribing judges to sway a ruling in the sale of the state-owned food giant SME in the 1980s. He has faced scores of investigations into alleged illegal business dealings, but the SME trial is by far the most serious.
One of the premier’s lawyers, Niccolo Ghedini, confirmed that the trial was expected to resume in about two months in Milan, with a new panel of judges.
While Berlusconi’s trial was halted under the immunity law, the proceedings went ahead for other defendants in the same case. A close associate of the prime minister, Cesare Previti, was cleared of giving bribes to influence the sale of SME. But he was given a five-year sentence for handing cash to a Rome judge to keep up their friendly relations. Previti is appealing against the verdict.
”We don’t agree with this ruling but we respect it,” said Renato Schifani, the senate whip for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party and the architect of the immunity legislation. ”We weren’t seeking impunity, but simply the possibility to carry out institutional roles.” – Guardian Unlimited Â