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Berlusconi seeks to end his legal woes

Rome: Silvio Berlusconi is on course to end his problems with Italy’s courts after his Cabinet has launched a Bill 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.

Mr. 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Berlusconi and the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament.

“If [Mr. Berlusconi] wanted to take care of his own interests, he would defend himself by taking part in all the hearings,” said Angelino Alfano, Justice Minister, adding: “But in that case he would be distracted from government activity, so he would render a good service to himself and a bad one to the country.”

Antonio Di Pietro, head of the opposition Italy of Values party, warned the Bill would usher in a “sweet dictatorship” and said he would push for a referendum on the matter.

The Mills trial was set to be halted thanks to an amendment, slipped this week into a decree combating crime, which suspends for one year all trials for alleged crimes committed before June 2002, including the suspected bribe.

But Mr. Berlusconi fought off accusations that he would benefit personally from the measure by announcing he would specifically ask for the ruling not to be applied to his trial with Mr. Mills, the estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister. The Bill announced will instead give Mr. Berlusconi the rest of his term in office free from court appearances. The Bill could also save him from a second legal wrangle in Naples, where magistrates suspect he sought to get jobs for women actors at the state TV network Rai last year. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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