Judge orders Berlusconi to stand trial on fraud charges

MILAN - An Italian judge has ordered ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and British lawyer David Mills to stand trial for alleged fraud at broadcaster Mediaset, the latest in a string of court cases involving the country's richest man.

Mills, the estranged husband of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, was among 13 other people the judge ordered to be tried over the alleged fraud at the Berlusconi family's broadcaster Mediaset, judicial and legal sources said.

The case, which Berlusconi has dismissed as politically motivated, follows a four-year investigation into claims of embezzlement, false accounting, tax fraud and money laundering in television rights deals between 1994 and 1999.

Berlusconi, a flamboyant showman who defied national opinion and backed US President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, could face up to six years in jail for tax fraud if convicted.

But the permatanned 69-year-old has managed to avoid jail in at least seven previous graft trials. He was found guilty four times, but verdicts were overturned on appeal or the statute of limitations applied and charges were dropped.

The decision to go to trial follows Berlusconi's razor-thin defeat in April elections, which saw Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister ousted from power in what he angrily claimed was a fraudulent result.

Nicknamed "The Knight", billionaire businessman Berlusconi breezed into politics in 1994 promoting a "you can be rich like me" message that Italians lapped up.

Cruise ship crooner

Berlusconi's first spell as prime minister did not last long, but he came back to power in 2001 with a centre-right coalition that defied Italy's reputation for revolving-door governments.

He loves telling anecdotes about how he built his fortune, selling crumpled-up newspaper to light stoves in post-war Italy and using his charm as a cruise ship crooner, finally moving into property in Milan and then into the media business.

Berlusconi had repeatedly accused magistrates of working on behalf of the centre-left and said they would pursue him if he lost power.

"It was a predictable decision, considering the previous hearings in Milan," said Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini after Friday's ruling. "They haven't allowed crucial witnesses for the defence to be heard."

Among the 13 people also ordered to stand trial was British lawyer David Mills, estranged husband of a British government minister, and Mediaset Chairman Fedele Confalonieri, judicial and legal sources said.

For two of the 13, the statute of limitations applies, meaning they will not be tried.

Mediaset in a statement denied any crimes and said its executives and directors had always acted correctly.

Prosecutors suspect a US firm sold television and cinema rights to two offshore firms controlled by a Berlusconi family holding company, Fininvest.

The offshore firms then allegedly inflated the prices and sold them to Mediaset, controlled by Fininvest, to avoid Italian taxes and create a slush fund.

In a related case, Milan prosecutors have accused Berlusconi of paying Mills a kickback of $600,000 for not revealing details of his media empire when Mills testified in two court cases.

Mills told Britain's Channel 4 news he was innocent and said the case had nothing to do with his wife, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, a close ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"I'm absolutely convinced of my own innocence. I'm advised I have a complete defence on the facts of the law ... and I'm sure it will end all right. I think the only problem is I won't have a chance to prove my innocence because this case will collapse because of the statute of limitations...," he said.

- REUTERS