Mills-Berlusconi fraud trial opens in Milan

The trial of former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and the estranged husband of Britain’s culture minister opened today on charges of false accounting, embezzlement and tax fraud in the purchase by Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire of TV rights for US movies.

Berlusconi, British lawyer David Mills and Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri are among 12 people indicted in the case. All have denied wrongdoing.