Italy Watch: Berlusconi granted immunity from prosecution

Silvio Berlusconi is on course to end his problems with Italy's courts after his cabinet launched a bill yesterday giving him immunity from prosecution while he remains in office.

The Italian prime minister's majorities in both houses of parliament are likely to ensure the bill becomes law, suspending his trial in Milan for allegedly paying a bribe to British lawyer David Mills in return for favourable evidence in previous trials. Both men deny wrongdoing.

Berlusconi, 71, has been involved in 1,000 hearings in 17 different trials in Italy, according to his lawyer Nicolo Ghedini, who helped frame the bill. The media mogul has hitherto been acquitted or benefited from the statute of limitations. He claims he is persecuted by politicised magistrates, whom he described this week as "a cancerous growth".

The bill, which suspends the statute of limitations while ongoing trials are blocked, is a rewording of a law passed by Berlusconi's previous government in 2003 which was deemed unconstitutional by Italy's constitutional court and thrown out. The measure will also halt any trials faced by the Italian president and the speakers of the two houses of parliament.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/28/italy1