JUDGES TELL NAPOLITANO THEY'RE 'WORRIED ABOUT DEMOCRACY'

JUDGES TELL NAPOLITANO THEY'RE 'WORRIED ABOUT DEMOCRACY'

(ANSA) - Rome, November 3 - Over 1,200 judges, jurists and lawyers signed a petition to President Giorgio Napolitano on Tuesday expressing concern about Premier Silvio Berlusconi's criticism of the judiciary as a possible ''threat to democracy''.

According to the statement, ''the numerous accusations by the premier and other government members of political partisanship in court rulings'' led signers to fear for ''the fate of justice and democracy in Italy''.

The document cited a number of remarks made by Berlusconi since the Constitutional Court in early October quashed a law granting him immunity from prosecution, restarting trials against him.

After accusing the court members of political bias, Berlusconi said a judge in Milan who awarded 750 million euros in damages to a cheated business rival had committed ''a juridical enormity''.

Last week, Berlusconi called into a prime-time political talk show to lash out at ''communist, red-robe'' judges who upheld the conviction of David Mills, an English lawyer found guilty of taking a $600,000 bribe to perjure himself in trials regarding Berlusconi's Fininvest group in 1997 and 1998.

The document said that the premier's statements were especially worrying in view of the government's planned judicial reform, which the signers see as a reprisal for the rulings against him.

Signers include two former Constitutional Court and top prosecutors from Turin, Palermo and Milan.