ITALY: Berlusconi immunity law rushed through parliament

A Berlusconi immunity law was rushed through Italy's parliament, whixh approved a highly controversial law that will give Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while he remains in office. The bill, which moved through parliament in near-record time, will save Berlusconi from facing a verdict in a current corruption trial during Italy's six-month presidency of the EU, which starts on July 1. The center-left opposition has condemned the bill, which the Senate approved earlier, as unconstitutional and says its content and timing are designed solely to protect billionaire Berlusconi, Italy's richest man. The bill's backers say it merely restores to Italian politicians some legal protection removed in the wake of corruption scandals in the early 1990s and which many other countries have. The immediate effect of the bill will be to freeze a current trial in Milan, where Berlusconi is charged with bribing judges in a 1980s corporate takeover battle nearly a decade before he entered politics. Berlusconi has repeatedly said that he is being persecuted by leftist magistrates. (Reuters6/18/03).

Ronald Hilton - 6/26/03