ITALY: Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi suffered a serious setback yesterday when Italy's Constitutional Court rejected a controversial immunity law passed last summer which had effectively granted the Prime Minister immunity from prosecution while in office.
Although the so-called Lodo Schifani law applied not only to the office of prime minister but also to four other high-ranking positions, including the state president and speakers of both houses of parliament, critics and opposition forces argued that the legislation was tailor-made for Mr Berlusconi.
In particular, the centre-left opposition pointed out that the Lodo Schifani got the Prime Minister off the hook in the Milan-based "SME" trial in which he and his long-time political ally and former private lawyer, Mr Cesare Previti, stood accused of bribing judges.
Yesterday's constitutional court ruling argued that the Lodo Schifani contravenes Articles 3 and 24 of the Italian constitution in that it breaches the fundamental principle of the equality of all citizens before the law.
The immediate effect of yesterday's judgment will be the resumption of the SME trial in relation to Mr Berlusconi, although it seems probable the case will now be heard in front of a different judge and court.
Following the passing of the Lodo Schifani last June, the prosecution case against the prime minister in the SME trial was suspended.
In the meantime, the court continued to sit in judgment on Mr Previti, sentencing him to a five-year sentence for his role in systematic bribery of Rome-based judges on behalf of Mr Berlusconi's Fininvest group.
Both Mr Berlusconi and Mr Previti had been accused of attempting to bribe the judges during a business takeover deal, with prosecutors alleging that they had tried to stop a rival firm taking over state-owned food group SME in the 1980s.
Although Mr Berlusconi did not comment on yesterday's Constitutional Court ruling, he had given a succinct outline of the rationale behind the need for the immunity legislation in an infamous open letter written to Milan daily, Corriere Della Sera, last May.
Refuting those critics who argued that since taking office in June 2001, he has governed almost exclusively in his own private interests, Mr Berlusconi said the reinstatement of parliamentary immunity and the suspension of his trial were not intended as a "helping hand for the prime minister" but would rather restore to parliament its "constitutional primacy" and "true political centrality".
On that occasion, as on many others over the last decade, the prime minister also reiterated his belief that he was the victim of a political witch-hunt orchestrated by leftist "Jacobin" magistrates. Mr Berlusconi added that the "true and pre-eminent problem" of Italy over the last decade was that "political, economic and para-judicial lobbies" have systematically tried to deny Italians "the right to pick the government they want".
Yesterday's Constitutional Court ruling was inevitably warmly received by the centre-left opposition with former "Tangentopoli" magistrate, Senator Antonio Di Pietro commenting: "This is good news because we have always said that this law is unconstitutional and immoral".
With equal inevitability, centre-right figures reacted negatively to the judgment, with Forza Italian spokesman Mr Sandro Bondi arguing that the "Lodo Schifani" had been based on legal precedents currently applicable in many European Union member-states.
"We've wasted and lost yet another chance to write a new page in Italian political life," said Mr Bondi.