Law would give immunity to Berlusconi http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2010/03/12/Law-would-give-immunity-to-Berlusconi/UPI-45621268419102/

 Italian lawmakers, over protests by the opposition party, passed a bill that would shield Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from criminal trials for 18 months.The bill, approved Thursday, would affect two criminal trials in which Berlusconi is accused of corruption, The Times of London reported Friday.Both trials likely would be adjourned for 18 months because the bill would excuse Berlusconi from attending the hearings on the ground that his ministerial duties are a "legitimate impediment." The bill would be effective after it is signed into law by President Giorgio Napolitano. 

In one trial, the prime minister is accused of paying David Mills, his former British tax lawyer and estranged husband of Britain's Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, to lie for him in corruption cases in the 1990s. In the second, Berlusconi's television company, Mediaset, is accused of tax fraud in its purchase of Hollywood film rights.Maurizio Gasparri, a senator from Berlusconi's People of Liberty party, said the new law would "balance the relationship between the executive and judiciary" branches of government. Nicola Latorre, a center-left senator, said the measure was designed to save Berlusconi from "any judicial reckoning."