'Berlusconi will have to resign if immunity law overturned'

Rome, Sep. 18 (ANI): Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would be forced to resign if laws providing him immunity are overturned by the Constitutional Court next month, his lawyers have admitted.

"If the Constitutional Court, which begins its deliberations on October 6, overturns the law there would be damage to the functions of an elected official, which could not be carried out", Times Online quoted Glauco Nori, a state lawyer for the prime minister's office, as saying.

The move could cause "irreparable damage" and lead to the Prime Minister's resignation, he added.

After coming to power for the third time in 2008, Berlusconi pushed the law through Parliament, which gives immunity to the offices of Prime Minister, President and the Speakers of both houses of parliament from court trials, which was dubbed

As being "tailor-made" to shield Berlusconi from corruption charges, by the opposition, the report said.

At the time when legislation was passed, Berlusconi was being prosecuted for allegedly giving a 600,000-dollar bribe to British lawyer David Mills to provide false testimony on his behalf in corruption trials in the 1990s, it added.

Berlusconi's trial was suspended but Mills was sentenced to 41/2 years in jail.

According to the report, the Milan prosecutor's office had recently submitted its own memorandum to the court, challenging the immunity law as violating the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.

If the immunity law is struck off next month, corruption charges against Berlusconi are likely to be revived.

According to reports, magistrates in Milan and Palermo are also investigating Berlusconi's suspected links to the Mafia in the 1990s. (ANI)