PROSECUTORS HAVE FILED a request to have Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stand trial for sex-related offences that could carry a combined jail term of up to 15 years.
The request for Berlusconi to stand trial immediately was submitted to a court in Milan today, reports The Daily Telegraph. A judge will now decide whether to accept prosecutors’ request and indict the 74-year-old or dismiss it.
Under Italian law, the fast-track procedure of summary judgement can be requested by the public prosecutor when there is clear evidence of an offence, according to Reuters.
Agence France Presse say this process could take at least five days before a decision is made and a start date for a possible trial is fixed.
The chief prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati and fellow judges have requested that Berlusconi stand trial over allegations that he paid for sex with a nightclub dancer nicknamed ‘Ruby the Heart-Stealer’, who was a minor at the time.
Berlusconi is also accused of abusing his power by asking police to release the disco dancer whose real name is Karima El Mahroug after she had been arrested for an alleged theft.
Bruti Liberati has said the charges would be separate from a probe into television agents Lele Mora and Emilio Fede, and ex-oral hygienist Nicole Minetti, who are all under investigation for instigating prostitution.
Berlusconi denies any wrongdoing, saying he has never paid for sex and accuses politically motivated leftist magistrates of trying to drive him out of power. However, he admits to phoning police on El Mahroug’s behalf saying he was only helping a person in need.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that Berlusconi faces further troubles this week when six private videos filmed at his homes in Rome and Sardinia are covered in the weekly magazine Oggi.
The videos are said to feature Noemi Letizia, the teenager whose unexplained relationship with Berlusconi set off the string of recent scandals that have engulfed the Italian Premier.
The newspaper also says that Berlusconi’s trial for allegedly bribing British lawyer David Mills for favourable testimony will resume on 11 March.
The trial had been suspended after Berlusconi’s government sponsored a law that would have enabled him to delay proceedings until he left office but this has been partially overturned by Italy’s constitutional court.
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