Italy parliament approves mass pardon for prisoners

ROME, July 30 (Reuters) Italy's Senate gave the final nod to a pardon for 12,000 Italian inmates to alleviate prison overcrowding, but the controversial measure sparked a row among some of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's allies.

In a rare event, most of the centre-right opposition voted with the government to back the amnesty after it was extended to those guilty of corruption and white-collar crimes.

Prodi enjoys only a two-seat majority in the upper house of parliament, meaning he needed opposition help to push through the measure, which required a two-thirds majority of votes.

The justice minister threatened to resign unless parliament passed the bill, but one prominent minister staged a noisy revolt against it.

With 62,000 prisoners in jails meant to accommodate 42,000, and many inmates awaiting trial in Italy's cumbersome court system, the pardon will slash three years off sentences.

Mafia members, terrorists, rapists, paedophiles, armed gangsters and those who prostitute minors will not get pardons. The opposition led by centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi, who lost to Prodi by a hair's breadth in April's election, insisted it should benefit officials and businessmen jailed for fraud and corruption to vote in favour of the bill.

That stuck in the throat of some of Prodi's Union coalition, which ranges from Catholics to communists, because Berlusconi's rule was rocked with corruption and bribery scandals whose culprits could now benefit from the pardon.

''This pardon goes against the rule of law. It's a surrender by the state,'' said Infrastructure Minister Antonio Di Pietro, head of the Italian Values party and a famous former anti-graft judge.

Other critics said the justice ministry had miscalculated how may prisoners would benefit from the pardon, arguing tens of thousands more would now be freed or have their sentences reduced.

Newspapers were awash with the names of famous detainees, including convicted murderers, who could take advantage of the amnesty and said it could also help those standing trial for the 2003 collapse of dairy group Parmalat, one of Europe's biggest corporate fraud scandals, if they are convicted.

Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, defending the measure, did not hide his irritation with Di Pietro, whose party proposed more than 1,000 amendments to the bill yesterday to try to delay the vote. They were all dismissed.

''There cannot be two justice ministers,'' he said.

The pardon will be revoked for those committing any new offence within five years.

REUTERS DKA KN0840