Italy's parliament has re-approved legislation on the national court system which the president refused to sign into law last month because of constitutional breaches.
The law, which has been adjusted after President Carlo Azegflio Ciampi's observations, contains a controversial change to Italy's three-tier justice system in the case of defendants acquitted at the end of a first trial.
In effect, prosecutors no longer have the appeals court stage to contest the decision and must go directly to the nation's highest court, the Court of Cassation. The centre-right government which was behind the law hailed its final approval but the centre-left opposition and certain representatives of the judiciary expressed their dismay, saying it had hardly been changed at all.
The Italian president can only send laws back to parliament once. If they are approved a second time, he must sign them.
Opposition MPs also noted that the law would affect an appeals trial under way in Milan in which Premier Silvio Berlusconi is a defendant. He was acquitted in the first trial.
When Ciampi withheld his signature from the law on appeals, his main objections were that the rights of the
defence and prosecution were no longer equal and that, in his view, the new rules would lengthen trial durations.
He also said the new system would produce a logjam of trials piling up before Cassation Court judges, who
normally examine appeals only on technical grounds. Centre-right parties have amended the package by
allowing prosecutors to appeal an initial acquittal if "decisive" evidence emerges. Changes have also been made to the transitional norms governing trials already under way.
"This law is an important step in the modernisation of the judicial system," said Justice Undersecretary Jole
Santelli after the vote late on Tuesday evening. "We are reducing the risk that an innocent person is unjustly convicted," said Renato Schifani, Senate Whip for Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
The deputy chairman of Italian judiciary's self-governing body, Virginio Rognoni, said the green light
in the Senate was "unfortunately predictable", confirming his "critical view" of the norms.
"This is a grave violation of the democratic system," said Democratic Left justice spokesman Guido Calvi, adding that it was intended primarily to help Berlusconi's interests.
The premier's trial in Milan is at the appeals stage. He stands accused of bribing a judge to block the 1985 sale of the SME food conglomerate, owned by state holding company IRI, to long-time business rival De Benedetti's CIR group.
From the beginning the premier denied all wrongdoing, insisting he was the victim of a politically motivated
judicial witch-hunt. Under the new rules, the appeals court proceedings will now be cancelled and the case will go to the Cassation Court.
