Berlusconi not immune

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

Italy’s highest court has thrown out a law granting the prime minister immunity from prosecution as long as he stays in office. Parliament, which is dominated by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party, rammed the law through quickly last year to force a halt to Berlusconi’s trial for corruption. Now that trial will resume. Berlusconi, a billionaire media tycoon who is Italy’s richest man, stands accused of trying to bribe judges during a business takeover deal in the 1980s, years before he went into politics. He maintains that he is the victim of a political vendetta by leftist judges.