Berlusconi facing new probes

2005-12-29 14:12

Rome - A leading Italian newspaper said on Thursday that Milan prosecutors had placed Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi under investigation for allegedly bribing a lawyer to give false testimony.

No one was available at Berlusconi's office or at the Milan prosecutors' office to comment on the report.

Corriere della Sera said Berlusconi was accused of ordering the payment of at least US$600 000 (about R3.8m) to a British lawyer in 1997 to give false testimony in two trials in which the premier was implicated.

The newspaper said prosecutors were investigating Berlusconi on charges of corruption and aiding false testimony.

Berlusconi was convicted in both cases - of bribing tax officials to get favorable audits at companies belonging to his media group, Fininvest; and of funnelling money through holding company All Iberian to fund the socialist party of former Italian premier Bettino Craxi.

Plagued by legal woes

However, he was later acquitted by Italy's highest appeals court in 2001 for the Fininvest case.

He was cleared in the All Iberian case because the statute of limitations had run out and false bookkeeping had been decriminalised.

Berlusconi was elected in 2001, and also served a brief term as premier in 1994.

He has been plagued by legal woes since he entered politics and has contended he is the victim of a campaign by left-leaning magistrates.

- AP