Prosecutors want to jail Berlusconi for five years

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s legal woes returned to haunt him as Milan prosecutors asked he be sentenced to five years in prison for bribing his former tax lawyer.

“It is certain, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the defendant is guilty,” Fabio De Pasquale told a court, accusing Berlusconi’s defence of being entirely “based on false documents”.

Berlusconi is accused of paying British lawyer David Mills €450,000 to provide false testimony in several trials against the tycoon in the 1990s. He denies the charges and accuses prosecutors of plotting against him.