The Constitutional Court's rejection of a controversial justice reform law passed when Silvio Berlusconi was in power could spell trouble for the former premier, judicial experts said on Thursday.
The experts said the ruling could lead to the revival of a judge-bribery trial against Berlusconi, who was unseated by centre-left chief Romano Prodi in the April 2006 general election and now heads the opposition.
The law in question was approved in February 2006 and prevents appeals by the prosecution in the case of defendants acquitted at the end of a first trial.
Prior to the reform, Italy's three-tier justice system meant that verdicts including acquittals could automatically be appealed twice before becoming definitive.
Berlusconi benefitted from the law last April when a Milan appeals court cited the legislation in rejecting a retrial request by prosecutors in the judge-bribery trial.
But the Constitutional Court, the supreme arbiter of Italian justice, ruled on Wednesday that parts of the law were "constitutionally illegitimate" because it created inequalities between the defence and the prosecution in the trial system, leaving the latter at a disadvantage.
The law was initially rejected by then president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
The centre left also criticised the legislation, which was drawn up by Gaetano Pecorella, Berlusconi's attorney and the former head of the House Justice Committee.
Critics accused Berlusconi of passing legislation deliberately framed to ease his legal woes.
Berlusconi denied the accusations, saying the Pecorella law would benefit all acquitted defendants, speed up the trial system and reduce the risk of innocent people being unjustly convicted.
The opposition chief on Wednesday railed against the Constitutional Court's ruling, saying that "we are not in a full and proper democracy. This sentence is a step backwards and confirms that all public institutions are in the hands of the Left which does as it pleases".
Pecorella commented: "This is a return to the Inquisition... The (Constitutional) Court is biased in favour of prosecutors and is harming citizens".
Berlusconi was cleared in December 2004 on charges that he bribed judges to prevent food conglomerate SME being sold to business rival Carlo De Benedetti in the mid-1980s.
The billionaire media magnate was cleared on one count but on another, that of paying a $430,000 bribe to a Rome judge in 1991, the judges applied the statute of limitations, saying the alleged offence happened too long ago for charges to be pressed.
The prosecution immediately appealed the acquittal while Berlusconi's defence team lodged an appeal in order to seek full clearance on the second count as well.
The Milan appeals court rejected both requests in its April 2006 ruling on the case.
Prosecutors in the original SME trial sought an eight-year conviction for Berlusconi.
The 70-year-old centre-right leader has always denied wrong-doing, insisting he is the victim of a politically motivated judicial witch-hunt.
Berlusconi's former attorney and one-time defence minister, lawmaker Cesare Previti, was twice sentenced to five years in the same SME trial.
But the Supreme Court overturned the convictions last November in a surprise ruling, saying that for technical reasons, the trial should have been held in Perugia and not Milan.
Meanwhile, Berlusconi is currently on trial in another high-profile corruption case also involving British corporate lawyer David Mills, the estranged husband of Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
The trial, which began in November, centres on alleged fraud at Berlusconi's private TV network company Mediaset.
A total of 14 defendants are on trial, including Berlusconi, Mills, Mediaset Chairman Fedele Confalonieri, and several top former officials at Berlusconi's Fininvest family holding company.
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.
Earlier this month, several charges against Berlusconi and Mills were dropped under reforms to the statute of limitations law introduced when the former premier was in power.
Berlusconi, who is Italy's richest man, has been at the centre of numerous corruption investigations into his vast business empire.
He insists all the probes against him have been mounted by left-wing prosecutors.
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.
