Berlusconi faces new trial on corruption charges

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi faced a new trial today on charges of corruption along with the estranged husband of British culture minister Tessa Jowell.

The trial, one in a series against Mr Berlusconi for his business dealings in Milan, alleges Mr Berlusconi ordered the payment in 1997 of at least €439,700 to his co-defendant lawyer David Mills in exchange for the lawyer’s false testimony in two trials against Mr Berlusconi in the 1990s.

Both deny the allegations.

“Berlusconi has nothing to fear from this trial because there is no evidence,” said defense lawyer Nicolo Ghedini. “The only risk is to waste time.”

In Italy, defendants are not required to appear at their trials and neither man showed up for the session dedicated to procedural matters.

If convicted, Mills and Berlusconi could be sentenced to between three and eight years in prison, according to prosecutors.

The charge is not the most serious Berlusconi – Italy’s richest man with a fortune that Forbes magazine put at more than $11.8bn (€8.9bn) – has faced during years of legal challenges.

But it comes at a time when he is trying to present his conservative forces as a viable alternative to Premier Romano Prodi’s fractious coalition, which just narrowly survived a crisis that could have led to fresh elections.

Emboldened by polls showing that the conservatives are leading in popularity, Berlusconi repeatedly called for early elections during and after the recent crisis.

However, a new vote – which would be well ahead of its 2011 schedule – appears unlikely at the moment.

At 70, Berlusconi has shown little sign of giving up the reins of leading Italy’s conservatives, and though his leadership has been challenged by some allies, he remains the dominant force.

He appears to have recovered after heart surgery in December, shortly after he collapsed during a political rally.

Berlusconi and Mills also are defendants in a separate case charging a dozen people with false accounting, embezzlement and tax fraud in the purchase by Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire of TV rights for US movies.

Most of the counts have been dismissed due to the expiry of the statute of limitations, and the remaining counts are set to expire later this year.

Berlusconi has a long history of legal troubles linked to his business interests based in Milan.

In past cases, he was either acquitted or cleared of the charges because the statute of limitations had expired. He has always maintained his innocence.

Mills and Tessa Jowell formally separated last year.