Silvio Berlusconi suffered perhaps the greatest setback in his long career today when Italy's top court stripped him of immunity from prosecution.
The verdict, from the panel of 15 senior judges in the Constitutional Court, will reopen a number of criminal trials against the 73-year-old Prime Minister, who may now face charges over allegations that he paid his former British tax lawyer, David Mills, $600,000 to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s.
The ruling comes after a string of sex scandals involving the media tycoon, but is likely to prove far more damaging to his 17-month-old Government.
Mr Berlusconi's spokesman said today that the ruling had been politically motivated and said that the Prime Minister fully intended to remain in office.
The court had been asked to rule on a law passed by Mr Berlusconi as one of his first acts in government which protects the four most senior office-holders in the country from prosecution.
Specifically, the judges had been asked whether it violated a key principle of the constitution which states that all Italians are equal before the law.
In a hearing which began yesterday, Mr Berlusconi's lawyers used what was quickly dubbed the "Animal Farm defence" after the motto in George Orwell's novel "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
Gaetano Pecorella, one of four lawyers representing the billionaire politician at the hearing, told the court: "He is no longer ‘first among equals’, but ought to be considered ‘first above equals."
Another, Niccolo Ghedini, added: "The law is equal for everyone, but not always in its application."
The long-awaited hearing began the day after another judge said that Mr Berlusconi was "co-responsible for corruption" in a bribery case revolving around a hostile takeover of a publishing firm by his media empire in the 1990s.
The immunity law came into effect when Mr Berlusconi was a co-defendant in the trial of Mr Mills, his former tax adviser and the estranged husband of the British MP Tessa Jowell. He was accused of bribing him to give false testimony in two previous trials.
Mr Berlusconi was removed from proceedings and Mr Mills was sentenced to four and a half years for perjury. It is the most high-profile of a number of cases that could now be resurrected.
A case in Milan concerns alleged irregularities within Mr Berlusconi’s company Mediaset regarding the sale of film rights.
Another involves a hearing in Rome, which could decide whether Mr Berlusconi should be sent to trial for allegedly attempting to bribe senators to bring down the previous centre-left government.
Mr Berlusconi has previously faced charges of corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegally financing political parties. He has never been convicted.
Analysts said, however, that the ruling would end Mr Berlusconi's aura of "untouchability".
Ranco Pavoncello, professor of political science at the John Cabot University in Rome, told the Reuters news agency: "This means that at least two trials against him will be automatically reopened. He was untouchable and now becomes touchable again, so he can be weakened by the judiciary."
Tito Boeri, economics professor at Milan's Bocconi University, added: "This is bad news for Italy. Berlusconi was already a lame duck at the head of a weak government because of the scandals around his personal life and now he is going to be even more lame duck heading an even weaker government.
"Italy is in bad need of reforms to get the economy going and this makes those reforms even less likely because Berlusconi will be less inclined or able to focus on any reform effort. I am pessimistic."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6864928.ece
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