Berlusconi probed for inducing sex-party witness to lie
Ex-premier's lawyer hopeful case will be dropped soon
19 April, 12:27
Thursday, 19 April 2012
(ANSA) - Rome, April 19 - Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi is under investigation in the southern city of Bari over accusations he induced a witness to lie about his alleged sex parties, judicial sources said on Thursday.
Berlusconi is suspected of bribing Bari businessman Giampaolo Tarantini to lie to magistrates about the role the latter allegedly played in supplying prostitutes to parties at the media magnate's homes.
The ex-premier has been under investigation since October but the news only emerged in media reports on Thursday and was confirmed by judicial sources, who said prosecutors were notifying Berlusconi that the probe has been extended.
Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo' Ghedini told Thursday's Corriere della Sera that the ex premier had not been informed he was being probed, but added that he was expected to be put under investigation for procedural reasons.
"At this point we can only hope that the case is dropped as soon as possible," added Ghedini, who is also an MP for Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party.
The case is related to an ongoing trial concerning allegations Berlusconi paid to have sex with an underage prostitute, Karima 'Ruby' El Mahroug, at his Arcore villa outside Milan and abused his power to try to cover the affair up.
Valter Lavitola, a Berlusconi associate who returned to Italy on Monday after living for over six month in South America as a fugitive of Italian justice, is also being probed for allegedly getting Tarantini to lie to magistrates.
Prosecutors suspect Tarantini denied that Berlusconi knew the women he took to the parties were paid during a 2009 interrogation because Berlusconi had given him money via Lavitola.
The Prosecutors had initially hypothesized that hundreds of thousands of euros had been extorted by Tarantini to not reveal the details of sex parties Berlusconi allegedly held in 2008 and 2009.
But subsequent investigations led them to suspect Berlusconi bribed Tarantini to lie.
Tarantini is suspected of providing at least 30 women for the former prime minister in a bid to exchange sex for public contracts.
Lavitola, the former editor of daily newspaper L'Avanti!, accompanied Berlusconi on some foreign trips during his time as premier even though he had no official government position.
Upon ending his exile this week Lavitola was told that he is also being investigated for alleged corruption with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and his government regarding contracts for the construction of prisons in the central American country.
Lavitola was told he is also being probed for criminal association related to the use of public funds for the media along with several other people, including Sergio De Gregorio, a Senator with Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party.
In addition to the Ruby case, the former premier is also on trial in two other cases.
One concerns accusations of fraud at his media empire while the other regards alleged involvement in the publication of an illegally obtained wiretap in his brother Paolo's conservative newspaper Il Giornale.
He could also face another trial after Rome prosecutors requested that he be indicted along with 11 other people for alleged fraud at a subsidiary of his Mediaset broadcasting empire -Mediatrade.
In the ongoing and several other previous trials, Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing, claiming he is the victim of a minority group of allegedly leftwing prosecutors and judges who he says are persecuting him for political reasons.
In more than a dozen cases, the premier has never received a definitive conviction, sometimes because of law changes passed by his governments, while some other charges were timed out by the statute of limitations.
__._,_.___
Posts
