Berlusconi Attends Court for Graft Hearing
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi showed up in court in Milan Monday for a hearing into claims he paid a lawyer 416,000 Euros ($600,000) for false testimony about his business dealings.
The embattled Berlusconi, who faces a string of other court cases, is alleged to have paid the money to his former British lawyer David Mills for false testimony in a case dating back to the 1990s.
The Milan court, resuming proceedings suspended in July, heard video testimony from Swiss fund manager Maria De Fusco, who is alleged to have transmitted the payment to Mills.
Responding to a prosecution question, she categorically denied knowledge of any funds paid by Berlusconi, or by any of the companies he controlled.
A seemingly untroubled Berlusconi arrived at court around 0900 GMT, smiling to journalists and saying: "Me, I'm fine; it is you who look a bit rough."
Some in the crowd that gathered outside court shouted words of support to the prime minister, while others chanted "resign, resign."
At the end of the hearing, judges ruled that the testimony of several expected witnesses would not be heard, and that the verdict would be delivered sooner than previously anticipated.
The last witness, Mills, will be heard on October 24, while Berlusconi could testify on his own behalf on October 28.
Belusconi's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said the court's decision to exclude witnesses hampered his case.
"The presence of the defense is no longer useful in this case," because, without witnesses to question, "there was no room to maneuver," Ghedini said, adding that Berlusconi "will decide himself whether to be interviewed or not."
Berlusconi, whose popularity plunged to 24 percent in a September poll, left the courthouse at around 11:00 GMT without commenting on his various legal troubles.
Mills, a specialist in offshore tax havens, was convicted by a Milan court in 2009 and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail, but an appeals court threw out the corruption case in 2010 as the time limit had expired.
The presiding judge found at the time that Mills had accepted a bribe from the billionaire prime minister in November 1999, but that the trial exceeded the 10-year limit for prosecution set by Italian law.
It sentenced Mills to pay 250,000 euros to the Italian government for damage to its image.
A separate trial for tax evasion linked to the Italian media mogul's Mediaset Empire is set to pick up again on September 26.
But all eyes will be on the trial for allegedly buying sex from a girl known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer" when she was a minor and abusing his power to spring her from police custody when she was arrested on suspicion of theft.
The next hearing in that case is set for October 3.
Source: Agence France Presse
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