Senate vote will help Berlusconi escape corruption trial

Italy's Senate was expected to pass a bill yesterday that could help the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, escape trial on corruption charges.

The bill would allow trials to be moved if defendants could prove there was "legitimate suspicion" that magistrates were biased against them. Its powers would be retroactive.

The opposition insists the bill has been tailored to get the Prime Minister off the hook and that he is using his political power for personal ends. The draft legislation is bound to pass easily because Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition has a comfortable majority in the Senate.

Mr Berlusconi, a business mogul, is due to go on trial in Milan later this year on charges of bribing judges in the mid-1980s to win control of SME, a food company. He is trying to have the trial moved from Milan, where he claims judges have a politically motivated vendetta against him. Parliament and the judiciary have fought openly on the issue. Mr Berlusconi has made no secret of his contempt for the judiciary, which he says favours the left, while magistrates went on strike last month against his plans to reform them.

Prosecutors in Milan were responsible for unearthing the extent of the "Bribesville" scandal of the 1990s, which purged a generation of politicians, among them associates of Mr Berlusconi, and ultimately brought down the government at the time. If the Prime Minister succeeds in getting the case moved, the delay would probably lead to an acquittal because of Italy's 90-month statute of limitations.

The statute of limitations has already spared Mr Berlusconi from three other criminal trials. He still faces two more trials excluding the SME case.

The constitutional court is expected to rule on whether the Prime Minister's trial should be moved in October. Piero Fassino, who leads the opposition party, has called for Mr Berlusconi to put aside his personal agenda and have the bill withdrawn. It was proposed by a member of his ruling coalition. Mr Fassino says a mockery would be made of Italy's justice system if it were passed.

Thousands of people, led by celebrities including the left-wing film director Nanni Moretti, have turned out on the streets to protest against the bill. Chanting "Shame" and waving placards demanding that there be no impunity for the powerful, they spread from the road outside the Senate House into the Piazza Navona, a popular tourist spot. One protester, Maurizio, a railroad worker who stood with about 100 other people outside the Senate yesterday, said: "This is a law designed for two people, Berlusconi and [his fellow defendant] Cesare Previti."

Mr Berlusconi insists he has no personal interest in this bill. He dismissed the protests as left-wing grandstanding and other supporters also said the bill was sound.

On Wednesday, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the President, praised the judiciary's independence, calling it "a shared asset that cannot be sacrificed to meet any contingent needs", in what appeared to be a thinly veiled affirmation of support for the opposition's stance.

The legislation was being rushed through only a day before the Senate was expected to shut down for its summer recess, which led many to speculate that the timing was for Mr Berlusconi's expediency.

To become law, the bill will need to be passed by the House of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, in September.