Judge considers request for Berlusconi tax trial

A judge in Milan held an opening hearing today on a request by prosecutors to indict Premier Silvio Berlusconi on charges of false accounting, tax fraud and embezzlement.

Legal proceedings also began against Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell’s husband on allegations of tax fraud and money laundering.

Company lawyer David Mills is alleged to have set up offshore firms that helped Berlusconi’s media company avoid tax liability on TV rights.

Mr Mills denies any wrongdoing, and was not at the hearing.

Besides Mr Mills and Berlusconi, twelve other people also face possible charges of money laundering and tax fraud.

The session was adjourned without decision until November 7. The judge decided more time was needed to study court documents, the Italian news agency Apcom quoted Nicola Ghedini, a lawyer for Berlusconi, as saying.

No decision on the indictment request had been expected today by Judge Fabio Paparella, Ghedini had said.

Berlusconi, who was leading a Cabinet meeting in Rome while the hearing was being conducted in Milan, has denied the accusations, which stem from a four-year investigation of the purchase of TV rights by his media empire.

Prosecutors in April formally asked that Berlusconi be brought to trial.

They say Berlusconi-owned broadcaster Mediaset purchased TV rights for US movies before 1999 through two offshore companies and falsely declared the purchase costs to Italian tax authorities to lower the tax bill.

The case is one of several investigations against the billionaire business magnate, who depicts himself as the victim of prosecutors he contends sympathise with the left. In several cases, Berlusconi has been either acquitted or the charges have been dropped because the statute of limitations expired.

Indictment has also been sought in the case for 12 others, including Mediaset SpA chairman Fedele Confalonieri.

Defence lawyers told the judge that Berlusconi was unable to attend because of commitments in Rome, but that didn’t dissuade the judge from noting for the official record that Berlusconi was not present, Apcom said.

During the three-hour hearing a judge rejected a defence motion complaining that the notice to defendants about the hearing was faulty, the ANSA news agency said.