Milan, Italy - Several Italian opposition leaders on Tuesday renewed calls for Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi to resign after judges who found a British lawyer guilty of corruption said he lied to protect Berlusconi's business interests. The judges released their 400-page reasoning on Tuesday, three months after handing David Mills a four-and-half-year prison sentence.
They say Mills gave false testimony in two 1990s trials to shield Berlusconi and his Fininvest holding company.
Mills, acted "as a false witness...to allow Silvio Berlusconi and his Fininvest group impunity from the charges or, at least, to keep their huge profits," the judges' reasoning read.
Berlusconi was a co-defendant in the trial, but his case was frozen in 2008 after parliament - in which the governing conservatives enjoy a comfortable majority - passed a law granting immunity from prosecution to top officials, including the prime minister.
In February the court, presided over by Judge Nicoletta Gandus, convicted Mills of taking a 600,000 dollar bribe in 1998 in exchange for withholding court testimony in the two trials in which Berlusconi was a defendant.
Both Berlusconi and Mills, a tax lawyer who is the estranged husband of British Olympics Secretary Tessa Jowell, have denied any wrongdoing.
In his reaction to the judges' reasoning, Berlusconi said Tuesday he would report to parliament on the matter, but did not specify when.
The 72-year-old media mogul-turned politician has repeatedly blamed his legal woes on what he says is the communist-inspired judiciary's political vendetta against him.
"If we were living in a civilised country, Berlusconi would be forced to resign, because of pressure from the opposition, the media and public opinion," a lawmaker for the centre-left Italy of Valuers party, Massimo Donadi said.
His words were echoed by the Communist Refoundation party leader Paolo Ferrero, who said it was "shameful" that Berlusconi was allowed to "represent Italy".
Italy's Constitutional Court has been asked to rule on the law which gives immunity to Italy's top four institutional figures - the president, the premier and the two parliamentary speakers. It is expected to start hearings after the summer.
