Top Italian court reviews law shielding Berlusconi

ITALY’S Silvio Berlusconi faced a day of reckoning yesterday as the Constitutional Court began mulling whether to strip him of immunity from prosecution on pending corruption charges.

Dogged by months of sex scandals and reeling from a weekend court ruling that his Fininvest holding company must pay €750 million to a rival media group, the billionaire prime minister insists he will see out his five-year term.

“Nothing can make us betray the mandate entrusted to us by the Italian people,” said Berlusconi, elected to a third term in May 2008 with a comfortable majority.