An Italian court threw out an appeal today by Tessa Jowell's husband, David Mills, leaving the London lawyer one last chance to overturn his conviction for taking a bribe from Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
Mills, who said his faith in Italian justice had become "a trifle strained", will now take his case to Italy's highest appeals court. The court of cassation, which sits in Rome, should have time to reach a decision before next April when the case would otherwise be "timed out" by a statute of limitations.
The Olympics minister's husband was given a four-and-a-half year sentence earlier this year after being found guilty of taking $600,000 (£370,000) to alter his testimony in Berlusconi's favour in two trials in the 1990s. Even if his second appeal is rejected, he is unlikely to go to jail, however.
An amnesty enacted by the previous Italian government in 2006 will reduce the jail term by three years. And, as a first-time offender, Mills would probably have the rest of his prison sentence suspended. But he may have to pay ¤250,000 (£230,000) in damages to the state.
Mills said: "My faith is the Italian justice system is becoming a trifle strained. But I am sure that, when the case gets to the supreme court in Rome in the New Year, the supreme court, which guards Italy's legal reputation, will deliver a fair verdict."
The ruling also has important implications for Berlusconi, already under pressure over a string of sex scandals. He was no longer a defendant in the case because he gave himself immunity from trial last year. However, earlier this month, his immunity was scrapped by the constitutional court and he now faces a retrial. .
Mills was Berlusconi's former offshore legal adviser. He helped him construct a network of firms through which the TV magnate-turned-politician channelled sizeable sums of cash.
As the prosecution was unable to prove that Berlusconi was the source of the money Mills received in February 2000, its case rested on the British lawyer's admission to investigators that it was a payment for his help in the two trials.
Mills made his statement after being presented with a letter he had written to his accountant saying the cash was for keeping "Mr B out of a great deal of trouble he would have been in had I said all I knew".
He later withdrew his admission and produced evidence which, he claimed, proved the money came from a Neapolitan ship owner.