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Italy senate approves trial time limit bill that could dismiss Berlusconi charges

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Italian Senate approved a bill Wednesday that aims to shorten the trial and appeals process by putting strict time limits on its duration. The legislation would limit the three stages of a case - trial, initial appeal, and final appeal - to between 6.5 and 10 years depending on the crime, and cases that exceed the time limit would end in an automatic acquittal of the defendant. Because of the bill's retroactive effect, two pending corruption cases against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would be automatically dismissed. Members of Berlusconi's center-right coalition defended the bill as a way to speed up the slow Italian justice system while his critics called it an "ad personam" bill, passed by his allies to help Berlusconi with his legal troubles. The bill would become law if it is approved by the Chamber of Deputies and signed by President Giorgio Napolitano. In October, the Italian Constitutional Court struck down a 2008 law granting immunity to Berlusconi and four others, finding it unconstitutional. Last week, Italian judges postponed Berlusconi's corruption trial at his lawyers' request. He is charged with paying his British lawyer David Mills to provide false testimony in two trials involving Berlusconi's broadcast company, Mediaset. Berlusconi's tax fraud trial has also been postponed. Berlusconi has been previously acquitted of false accounting and bribery, and has had some other charges against him dropped.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 21, 2010 (boomark / email).