The Italian Chamber of Deputies Wednesday passed a law reducing the legal time limits, a measure which, if passed by the Senate, will
the effect of avoiding the Chairman Silvio Berlusconi on trial for witness tampering.
Under the jeers from the opposition benches, the House voted by 314 votes against 296 the bill reducing the statute of limitations for criminal defendants to
criminal record.
It would shorten the eight-month trial Mills, named after British lawyer David Mills in which Berlusconi is accused of having given 600,000 dollars in exchange for false testimony.Berlusconi denies it, but it is now unlikely that a verdict could intervene before the action is extinguished.
Opponents have expressed for several days before the Parliament and the House debate was lively.
"We wish to reiterate that not only laws but also the principles of the Constitution that the government stalled," said Dario Franceschini, president
House Democrats of the Left, the main opposition party.
The measure is part of a broader program initiated by the Justice Minister, Angelino Alfano, presented by the government as a necessary reform of the judiciary, but critics say tailored to avoid jail Berlusconi.
Alfano, a Sicilian than 40 years often presented as the political heir of Berlusconi, has denied that his reform of the Italian judiciary, known for its slowness, is intended to
help Berlusconi escape to the judges.
The bill must still be passed by the Senate, where the center-right government of Berlusconi controls the majority.
