Fresh proceedings against Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly bribing British corporate lawyer David Mills will begin on December 4, a Milan court ruled Friday. Berlusconi was removed from the trial by an immunity law passed by his government last year but the law was struck down by the Constitutional Court last month. The trial was therefore reactivated but the judges have been required to step down because they found Mills guilty and a fresh set of judges must now take up the case. Findings and evidence admitted during Berlusconi's involvement in the first proceedings, up to October 2008, will be valid in the second one, the court ruled Friday.

In the case, Berlusconi is accused of paying Mills $600,000 to hush up evidence in two previous corruption trials. Mills has been found guilty twice in the case and has one appeal left against his four-and-a-half year sentence. Berlusconi's lawyer, Niccolo' Ghedini, said Friday the premier will not be able to attend the trial's opening session because of a cabinet meeting. But the lawyer stressed he and his client were confident. "If we find a fair-minded judge we will be acquitted," he said. The Italian premier and media magnate has consistently claimed he is being persecuted by allegedly leftist sections of the judiciary. Another trial against Berlusconi, for alleged irregularities in the sale of film rights, has already restarted. The premier did not attend the first session of that trial because of a world food summit in Rome.

Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party confirmed Thursday it will present a new version of the immunity law, this time as a constitutional amendment which it believes will pass muster with the Constitutional Court. The centre-right government is also framing a controversial law to cut the duration of trials, for crimes carrying less than a 10-year penalty, to a mandatory two years for each of the three stages. Should that law be approved, both of Berlusconi's trials would be annulled by the statute of limitations.