Friday 06 June 2003 Immunity law for Italian politicians  | Italy's upper house of parliament has approved legislation which effectively grants judicial immunity to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. This means that his trial in Milan on charges of bribing judges to further his business interests could be blocked indefinitely. This report from David Willey. |
 Listen to the story The five leading public office holders in Italy including the prime minister, the president, the speakers of both houses of parliament and the chief justice will be able to claim immunity from prosecution under the new law which still has to be passed by the lower chamber, but as Silvio Berlusconi has a clear majority in both houses of parliament, this will be something of a formality.
Mr Berlusconi has re-introduced immunity from prosecution for leading politicians after his lawyers failed to get him off the hook in an ongoing corruption trial in Milan. The new immunity law is eventually expected to be extended to include all members of parliament.
Until ten years ago a similar blanket protection from prosecution for Italian politicians was in force. This was revoked after the scandals of the clean hands bribery scandal which caused a political earthquake at the time in a country where it had become the norm for businessmen to bribe politicians, but now it is back to square one. Listen to the words immunity from prosecution able to escape prosecution formality something that has to take place off the hook to get out of a difficult situation ongoing continuing blanket protection complete, total, protection revoked cancelled a political earthquake a huge political upset back to square one a return to the previous situation | |  | | | SEARCH IN LEARNING ENGLISH | | | |
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