Berlusconi threatens ‘total war’ over sex trial

Soon afterward his chief ally,Umberto Bossi of the Northern League,said the indictment request marked the start of a ‘total war’ between Italy’s judiciary and its legislature,reports the Guardian.

Berlusconi and his allies have argued that the case should have been dropped last week after a vote in the lower house of parliament,where they have a narrow majority.

The house adopted a resolution that meant,in effect,that the prosecutors had no right to pursue their investigation.

Milan’s chief prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati said his colleagues had asked for the Prime Minister to be put in the dock without a preliminary hearing because of the ‘obviousness of the evidence’ against him.

A judge,Cristina Di Censo,is expected to rule early next week on the prosecutors’ application. If it is granted,Berlusconi could be put on trial as early as April.

Normally,decisions on whether to indict a suspect accused of paying a juvenile prostitute are taken by a judge after a preliminary hearing.

But Bruti Liberati said his office had decided to follow a practice,already established in Milan and elsewhere in cases where one of two alleged related offences qualified for direct indictment of the accused,of applying the same fast-track procedure to both.

The decision was taken despite a warning from Berlusconi’s lawyers that they would argue it was unconstitutional.

The latest move piled yet more pressure on the media tycoon-turned-conservative politician,whose Freedom People movement was hit by a split last year.

Clearly enraged by the prosecutors” determination to press ahead,Berlusconi told a press conference in Rome: “It’s a disgrace. It’s disgusting.”

“I wonder who is going to pay for this activity,whose only aim is subversive,” he added.

He then indicated that it would be the taxpayer who paid,because ‘I shall attempt to sue the state’.

The evidence laid before Di Censo ran to almost 800 pages. It included witness statements and wiretap transcripts suggesting the Prime Minister had invited dozens of women,including prostitutes,to his mansion near Milan for dinners that degenerated into debauches.

Berlusconi,who denies any wrongdoing,is also at risk from an investigation overseen by prosecutors in Naples.

On Wednesday,Police acting on their orders searched the Milan home of another woman claimed to have been a guest of the prime minister. According to leaks from the inquiry,she is suspected of links with the Neapolitan mafia,the Camorra.

The allegations

Prosecutors alleged Berlusconi,74,paid for sex with the Moroccan girl,nicknamed Ruby,who has since turned 18,then used his influence to get her out of police custody when she was detained for the unrelated suspected theft of euro3,000 ($4,103). They allege that he feared her relationship to him would be revealed.

Ruby was released into the custody of a Berlusconi aide,who also is under investigation with two other confidantes.

Paying for sex with a prostitute is not a crime in Italy,but it is if the prostitute is under 18. The age limit was raised from 16 in 2006 during a campaign against underage prostitution by a previous Berlusconi government.

Prosecutors are seeking an immediate trial – a sped-up procedure that would skip the preliminary hearing – because they believe they have sufficient evidence against the premier. The have forwarded a 782-page document to Judge Christina Di Censo to back up their indictment request.

Speaking at a news conference in Rome,Berlusconi said the prosecutors had “offended the dignity of the country” with a smear campaign and groundless allegations.

“It’s shameful,really. It’s shameful and disgusting,” he said of the prosecutors’ actions.

“I wonder who’s going to pay for these activities,which,in my humble view,only have a subversive aim,” Berlusconi added.

Berlusconi said prosecutors had smeared not just his name but that of Italy. He insisted he has only been at the service of his nation.

Both Ruby and Berlusconi have denied having sexual relations,although she has said Berlusconi gave her euro7,000 ($9,550) on their first meeting.

The child prostitution charge carries a possible sentence of six months to three years; the abuse of influence charge,which experts say is more dangerous for Berlusconi,carries a possible sentence of four to 12 years.

In response to that charge,the premier’s supporters say he made the call to Milan police only to avert a diplomatic incident because Berlusconi believed at the time that the girl was the niece of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. His defense maintains the case should be handled not by the Milan prosecutors but by a special tribunal set up to deal with alleged offences committed by public officials.

“I have intervened as prime minister,because I was worried that there could be an international diplomatic incident,” Berlusconi told reporters Wednesday.

Di Censo,the judge,must now decide whether to dismiss the prosecutors’ request or go ahead with a trial – which would add to Berlusconi’s already substantial legal worries. A decision is expected within two weeks,just as two unrelated trials and one preliminary legal hearing are about to resume in Milan. These corruption trials are resuming after Italy’s Constitutional Court watered down a law that had briefly shielded the premier.

Parliament,in which Berlusconi controls a slim majority,tried to derail the investigation by saying Milan prosecutors don’t have jurisdiction and rejecting their request to search Berlusconi’s properties for evidence. Chief Milan Prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati,however,said the crime was not committed in the exercise of Berlusconi’s duties.

“This is not an act that can be ascribed to his office,” he told reporters.

He said prosecutors will not seek to use as evidence a handful of wiretaps of phone calls involving Berlusconi,which would require parliamentary approval,saying they ultimately were “not relevant.”

Ruby herself is under investigation for allegedly misidentifying herself when she was held by police for pickpocketing,Bruti Liberati told reporters.

Documents now in the hands of the judge include hundreds of pages of wiretaps of conversations among women at Berlusconi’s parties that have been previously leaked to the press.

In some purported conversations,Berlusconi’s mansion is described as a brothel with topless girls dancing around; the premier himself is described as a “caricature” by one guest and as having gained weight and having become ugly by another. Other published wiretaps have a woman identified as Ruby saying that Berlusconi was willing to pay for her silence.

Polls suggest the damage to Berlusconi – who was last elected in 2008 to a five-year term – has been limited,and his supporters remain as devout as ever in a sign of Italy’s political polarization.

“His popularity is down,but not out,” said analyst Roberto D’Alimonte,a professor of political science at Rome’s LUISS university. “One of the main reasons is a lack of clear alternative. On the other side,there is not a single credible coalition,there is not a single credible leader and not a single credible program.”

Berlusconi’s supporters insist the case represents an invasion of privacy,and say the prosecutors should direct their energies elsewhere. About 100 Berlusconi supporters demonstrated Wednesday outside the Milan courthouse,waving Italian flags and holding banners that read “Silvio Must Overcome.”

“I am here to defend Silvio,who has done so much for us,” said Anna Maria Selvia,a retiree in her 70s,denouncing the scandal’s raunchy tales.

While this is the first legal case to touch on his private life,it is not the first sex scandal that has engulfed the premier.

In one case,Patrizia D’Addario,a self-described call girl,said she spent the night with Berlusconi when Barack Obama was elected president. She later gave purported tapes of her encounter with Berlusconi to an Italian magazine.

His second wife,Veronica Lario,announced in 2009 she was divorcing him,citing Berlusconi’s purported fondness for younger women. Berlusconi has made no apologies for his lifestyle but has

denied ever paying for sex.

Berlusconi’s legal worries also include several cases that have been recently unfrozen by the Constitutional Court.

He is charged in a tax fraud case relating to his Mediaset media empire,and charged with bribery in another case. Another tax fraud case,but pertaining to more recent events than the ongoing Mediaset trial,will continue with a preliminary hearing next month.

Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing in the many cases involving his media holdings,and has always either been acquitted or seen the statute of limitations expire – something that is considered likely in the two trials under way. He has long contended he is the victim of a political vendetta orchestrated by what he

says are left-leaning prosecutors intent on ousting him.

“I’m not worried in the slightest,” Berlusconi said of the prostitution case. “I am a wealthy gentleman who can spend the rest of his life building hospitals for children like I’ve always wanted to.”