Former premier Silvio Berlusconi was fully acquitted of judge bribery by a Milan appeals court on Friday.
The centre-right opposition chief was cleared of charges that he paid a $434,000 bribe to Rome judge Renato Squillante in 1991.
The court also cleared Berlusconi of wrongdoing in connection with a separate 100 million lire payment made to Squillante.
The verdict was a victory for Berlusconi because a lower court had applied the statute of limitations to the first charge and the ex-premier's defence team had been seeking a full acquittal.
Berlusconi was said to have told supporters after being informed of the verdict at his Milan home: "Justice has finally been done. I've been waiting 11 years for this. I couldn't take it any more".
"I'm overwhelmed and have suffered a great deal," aides of the billionaire media mogul reported him as saying.
Berlusconi's attorney Gaetano Pecorella, a lawmaker and former head of the House Justice Committee, said that "this is a great victory for us - this is confirmation of the fact that Berlusconi is someone above all suspicion".
Another of Berlusconi's lawyers, MP Nicolo' Ghedini, said that "this is a great verdict. After 11 difficult years, Silvio Berlusconi has been proved innocent. The alleged crime does not exist".
Premier Romano Prodi commented: "I have always believed in the justice system and that's all there is to say".
The seven-year trial, which was recently resumed in the appeal stage on the orders of the Supreme Court, is connected to the 1980s sale of state food conglomerate SME.
Berlusconi was acquitted at the end of a preliminary trial in December 2004 on charges that he bribed judges to prevent SME being sold to business rival Carlo De Benedetti in 1985.
The billionaire media magnate was cleared on one count but on another, that of paying the $434,000 bribe to Squillante, the court applied the statute of limitations.
The prosecution had asked the appeals court to overturn the statute of limitations ruling and sentence Berlusconi to five years.
It told the court that the alleged sum paid to Squillante had originally come from an account that could be traced to Berlusconi's family holding company Fininvest and described Berlusconi as the "prime mover in this business".
But Pecorella said on Friday that the evidence presented by the prosecution did not constitute "absolute certainty that Berlusconi bribed the judge and absolute certainty of Berlusconi's responsibility".
It was not clear whether prosecutors would appeal against Friday's verdict.
Prosecutors had sought before to get the 2004 SME ruling overturned but were prevented by a controversial justice reform passed in the final months of Berlusconi's government (2001-2006).
The law, drawn up by Pecorella, prevented appeals by the prosecution in the case of defendants acquitted at the end of a first trial.
But the Constitutional Court nixed the law reform in January, saying it created inequalities between the defence and the prosecution, leaving the latter at an "unacceptable" disadvantage.
The ruling opened the way to the revival of the SME trial. Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing, insisting he is the victim of a politically motivated judicial witch-hunt.
His former attorney and one-time defence minister, lawmaker Cesare Previti, was twice sentenced to five years in the same SME trial.
The Supreme Court overturned the convictions in a surprise ruling last November, saying that for technical reasons, the trial should have been held in Perugia and not Milan.
BERLUSCONI ON TRIAL IN SEPARATE CASES.
Berlusconi is currently on trial in two other corruption cases, both involving British corporate lawyer David Mills, the estranged husband of Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
The first trial, which began in November, centres on alleged fraud at Berlusconi's private TV network company Mediaset.
The case stems from Mediaset's purchase of TV rights for US films up until 1999 through two offshore firms.
Prosecutors believe the purchase costs of US films were artificially inflated for tax evasion purposes.
In the second trial, which began last month, Mills is accused of accepting $600,000 from Berlusconi as payment for not revealing details of Berlusconi's media empire in two trials against the ex-premier in 1997 and 1998.
Berlusconi and Mills deny wrongdoing.
Berlusconi, who is Italy's richest man, has been at the centre of numerous corruption investigations into his vast business empire.
He has never received a definitive guilty verdict but in some cases he has been cleared because of the statute of limitations or changes to the law introduced when his coalition was in power.
