The Supreme Court has upheld a ruling stripping Gen. Augusto Pinochet, left, of his immunity against trial for the execution of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende, the Marxist president he toppled in a 1973 coup.
The case faces immediate suspension because of a new law signed this week by President Giorgio Napolitano giving the prime minister and his ministers immunity from trial for 18 months because their duties constitute a "legitimate impediment" to attending hearings.
The constitutional court struck down a law passed by parliament last June granting immunity from trial to the state's five most senior officials, including the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
An appeals court is currently weighing a ruling that would strip him of his legal immunity from trial in connection with $17 million he is said to have illegally obtained and deposited at Riggs Banks and other financial institutions in the United States.
Italians were called to the ballot box to give their verdict on three crucial government policies: first they had the opportunity to repeal the famous "legitimate impediment" – the law that gave Berlusconi automatic immunity from trial proceedings (already partially revoked by the constitutional court).
According to an unnamed SCAF official quoted by Ahram Online, an Egyptian state-owned media outlet, "Some Arab rich countries offered to give Egypt a lot of economic assistance, in billions of dollars, in exchange of granting Mubarak immunity from trial".
The main intervention referred to vasopressors in 38 trials; fluid loading/global hemodynamic-based strategy in eight trials; steroids in eight trials; modulation of immunity in 29 trials; coagulation-targeted therapy in 11 trials; and other adjunctive therapy in four trials.
The most recent law, which expires in October, granted only temporary immunity, suspending trials for a maximum of 18 months.
The defense discovered the immunity after the trial in discussions with Mr. Silvester's attorney, Hope Seeley.
Mr. Chirac is claiming judicial immunity in this trial from acts carried out as president.
