Italy's highest court strips Berlusconi of immunity protection

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives to greet a foreign leader at Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister's office in Rome, on the day Italy's highest court stripped the billionaire-turned-politician of his immunity from prosecution on pending corruption charges. (Alberto Pizzoli / AFP / Getty Images / October 7, 2009)

The Constitutional Court overturns a law granting the premier immunity from prosecution while in office, allowing a bribery trial to resume. The billionaire politician indicates he will not resign.

By Maria De Cristofaro and Henry Chu
LA Times
3:44 PM PDT, October 7, 2009
Reporting from Rome and London

Italy's highest court Wednesday overturned a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office, a major blow for a seemingly Teflon leader whose business dealings and personal peccadilloes have come under increasing fire.

The highly anticipated ruling threw a question mark over Italy's political scene and the future of its longest-serving premier since World War II. Berlusconi, a billionaire businessman-turned-politician, is now likely to come under pressure to resign or to call a snap election as a bribery trial against him reopens after being put on hold with passage last year of the immunity law.

At the least, analysts say, the Constitutional Court decision will further distract his government as it grapples with the global recession and as Berlusconi continues to dodge embarrassing allegations that he allowed prostitutes to attend parties at his home.

The prime minister's lawyers had suggested that he might quit if the ruling went against him, but Berlusconi vowed Wednesday to carry on governing as the head of a center-right coalition in parliament.

(More here.)