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Berlusconi slams corruption trial, brands witness `a liar`
Milan, June 17: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lashed out at his corruption trial today in a dramatic courtroom intervention, saying it was like a murder case without a corpse and branding the main prosecution witness a `pathological liar`.
Milan, June 17: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lashed out at his corruption trial today in a dramatic courtroom intervention, saying it was like a murder case without a corpse and branding the main prosecution witness a "pathological liar".
"There are no corpses here, no murder weapon and no motive," the billionaire business magnate told the court in Milan as he defended himself against the allegations.
"There is no (evidence of) any personal motivation I am supposed to have had for perverting a trial," he said.
The Prime Minister, Italy's richest man with an empire spanning banking, insurance and publishing as well as television interests and the AC Milan Football Club, is on trial for allegedly bribing judges over a 1985 business deal involving his Fininvest Holding Company.
Berlusconi -- dubbed "Il Cavaliere" or cavalier and estimated by the US magazine Forbes to have a personal wealth of six billion dollars -- is accused of paying judges to block the privatisation deal involving a rival company, nine years before he first came to power.
Berlusconi has denounced the case as part of an alleged witch-hunt by Left-wing magistrates in Milan.
His controversial business dealings -- and the potential conflict of interest between his vast media holdings and his political office -- have returned to the spotlight just two weeks before Italy takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Last week, the outspoken Right-winger who took office for a second time in 2001, faced a new legal embarrassment with the launch of a probe into suspected tax fraud by his Mediaset Group in the 1990s.
Bureau Report
"There is no (evidence of) any personal motivation I am supposed to have had for perverting a trial," he said.
The Prime Minister, Italy's richest man with an empire spanning banking, insurance and publishing as well as television interests and the AC Milan Football Club, is on trial for allegedly bribing judges over a 1985 business deal involving his Fininvest Holding Company.
Berlusconi -- dubbed "Il Cavaliere" or cavalier and estimated by the US magazine Forbes to have a personal wealth of six billion dollars -- is accused of paying judges to block the privatisation deal involving a rival company, nine years before he first came to power.
Berlusconi has denounced the case as part of an alleged witch-hunt by Left-wing magistrates in Milan.
His controversial business dealings -- and the potential conflict of interest between his vast media holdings and his political office -- have returned to the spotlight just two weeks before Italy takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Last week, the outspoken Right-winger who took office for a second time in 2001, faced a new legal embarrassment with the launch of a probe into suspected tax fraud by his Mediaset Group in the 1990s.
Bureau Report