**Italy’s highest court has overturned a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office.**The Constitutional Court annulled the law, which had let him withdraw from several cases. In one he was facing corruption charges.
Opponents say immunity violates the principle that all citizens are equal.
A spokesman for Mr Berlusconi said the verdict was “politically motivated” and insisted he would not resign.
There has been speculation in Italy that at least two court cases against the prime minister could resume if the law was annulled.
The BBC’s Duncan Kennedy, in Rome, says the news has stunned Italy.
The opposition has already called on him to step down, although it remains unclear how Mr Berlusconi’s coalition partners will react, our correspondent says.
‘Distractions’
When Mr Berlusconi came to office he was facing at least three court cases, including one involving the British lawyer David Mills.
In that case Mr Berlusconi was accused of bribing him to give false evidence.
Mills, who said he was innocent, was sentenced in February to four years and six months in prison for corruption.
Mr Berlusconi and his lawyers had argued that he needed the immunity law to carry out his duties as prime minister, our correspondent says.
The appeal to the Constitutional Court was launched by prosecutors including those from the Mills case.
They contended that immunity put Mr Berlusconi above the law and needed to be reversed.
Mr Berlusconi argued that immunity allowed him to govern without being “distracted” by the judiciary.