Italian Premier Let off the Hook

In a move that would have delighted master escape artist Harry Houdini, Berlusconi escaped the prospect of damaging and potentially explosive court proceedings when Italy's Senate backed a law that opposition members say will help the Premier avoid corruption charges.

To the raucous cries of "shame" from his opponents, the Forza Italia leader walked away relatively spotless from the Italian Upper Chamber after a tempestuous debate in which the bill was passed by 162 votes to nine.

The bill will now go to the Lower House, the Chamber of Deputies, for final passage in early September.

Dozens of opposition members of parliament walked out before the vote, while others wore blindfolds in protest.

As discussions continued in earnest, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Senate and were joined by politicians who walked out of the chamber.

Opponents told the waiting Italian media that the bill had been rushed through the Senate on the eve of parliament's summer recess as a favour to the Prime Minister.

Bill allows accused to move courts if bias is alleged

The bill will allow defendants to request that court cases be annulled or moved to another court if they have a 'legitimate suspicion' that the judges are biased against them.

Opponents say the bill, which would apply to current court cases, is a ploy by Mr Berlusconi to escape the courts.

The Prime Minister's centre-right coalition has a solid parliamentary majority and appeared unfazed by claims that it was trying to get its leader off the hook. It said the bill would bolster the civil rights of Italians by making trials fairer.

Further allegations to be faced by Forza Italia leader

Berlusconi also faces trial in Milan later this year on charges of bribing a judge to win control of SME, a state-owned food conglomerate, in 1985.

Alongside him will be his former aide and lawmaker Cesare Previti, unless the new bill is finally passed in September enabling both men to shrug off these further allegations of wrongdoing.

Berlusconi and Previti say they are innocent and have asked for the trial to be moved from Milan, where the right wing politicians say they would not get a fair hearing because of the judges' alleged left-wing sympathies.

Those angered by the Senate's decree say that if Mr Berlusconi argued that the judges were biased, he might be able to get the trial restarted - at which point the statute of limitations might dictate that he be acquitted.

Current let off joins list of skillful escapes

The statute of limitations has extinguished charges in three other criminal trials involving Mr Berlusconi.

Italy's richest man has weathered legal storms in the past, mostly stemming from his vast media and business empire.

He has faced accusations of false accounting, bribery of tax police and illegally funding his political party.

Mr Berlusconi's first period as Prime Minister in 1994 came to an early end, partly because of corruption charges. Three previous convictions for corruption and fraud have been overturned on appeal.

Italians are united in the need to improve Italy's slow, muddled judicial system, but many suspect that the government's reform initiatives are being used as a cover to kill corruption cases, including charges of false accounting and tax evasion levelled at members of the ruling party.

In addition to this most recent bill, Berlusconi's coalition has effectively decriminalised false accounting and passed a law impeding the exchange of financial information between Swiss and Italian magistrates.