Prosecutors were given the green light on Friday to appeal against former premier Silvio Berlusconi's 2004 acquittal on judge bribery charges after the Supreme Court ordered a Milan appeals court to reconsider the case.
The Milan appeals court rejected a retrial request by prosecutors in April 2006, citing a controversial justice reform law passed in the final months of Berlusconi's government.
The law, drawn up by MP Gaetano Pecorella - Berlusconi's attorney and former head of the House Justice Committee - and approved in February 2006, prevents appeals by the prosecution in the case of defendants acquitted at the end of a first trial.
But Italy's Constitutional Court nixed the law last month, saying it created inequalities between the defence and the prosecution in the trial system, leaving the latter at an "unacceptable" disadvantage.
Before the reform, Italy's three-tier justice system meant that verdicts including acquittals could automatically be appealed twice before becoming definitive.
Berlusconi was acquitted 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 court applied the statute of limitations.
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.
But the Supreme Court annulled the lower court's rulings on Friday and ordered it to reconsider both appeals.
Prosecutors in the SME trial had sought an eight-year conviction for Berlusconi.
The 70-year-old centre-right chief, who was ousted in last April's general election, has always denied wrongdoing, 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 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 CASE.
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, and 12 other defendants.
The 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.
Several charges against Berlusconi and Mills, who both deny wrongdoing, were recently dropped under reforms to the statute of limitations law introduced when the former premier was in power.
Berlusconi and Mills are also due to go on trial in Milan next month in a separate case.
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, insisting that Mills received the money in question from Neapolitan shipping magnate Diego Attanasio.
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.
