ITALY: Amidst scenes of protest, the Lower House of the Italian parliament last night approved a controversial Bill which opposition forces claim is tailor made for Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi, enabling him to avoid trial on bribery charges.
Opposition deputies broke into a refrain of the Italian national anthem and of the old communist ditty, "Bella ciao", and also held up banners proclaiming "shame" during yesterday's often heated sitting.
The so-called "Legitimate Suspicion" Bill approved yesterday allows the defendant in a criminal trial the right to ask for the case to be transferred to another judge in another city if he or she "legitimately suspects" that the judge or judges hearing the case may be biased.
For most of the last decade, Mr Berlusconi has maintained that a series of bribery, fraud and corruption charges brought against him were the fruit of a political witch-hunt led by left-wing investigating magistrates.
He has systematically denied all wrongdoing in relation to the various charges.
Speaking in San Patrignano in northern Italy yesterday, Mr Berlusconi claimed that the new measure represents a "fundamental right for everyone". Critics, however, claim that it is in fact a cynical ploy to ensure the collapse of the currently ongoing "Imi-Sir" trial in Milan in which the Prime Minister and his former defence minister Mr Cesare Previti stand accused of having bribed judges who were ruling on the sale of a state-owned food company in the mid-1980s.
The "Legitimate Suspicion" Bill, if signed into law, will become retro-active. In effect, this would mean that Mr Berlusconi's lawyers in the "Imi-Sir" case will ask for a transfer. Given that the Bill also calls for all such transferred trials to start off again from scratch, then the "Imi-Sir" trial may well collapse because it will run out of time, coming under the Statute of Limitations.
Critics claim that the "Legitimate Suspicion" Bill is merely the latest in a series of legislative initiatives prompted by the Prime Minister for private purposes.
In the last year, parliament has introduced new legislation, changing the law on false accounting (balance sheet fraud), creating an amnesty for the repatriation of overseas funds and tightening the procedures for cross-border co-operation in financial and banking investigations.
Mr Berlusconi argues that these were necessary measures, intended to update Italy's archaic legal system.
Critics argue, however, that his legislative zeal was prompted by the fact that he himself faced charges related to false accounting, overseas funds and cross-border banking.
Although the "Legitimate Suspicion" Bill has already been passed by the Senate, it will now have to go back to the Upper House for a further vote. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called Mr Berlusconi in for talks this week. Opposition newspapers said Mr Ciampi used the meeting to express his concerns about the Bill.