Former premier Silvio Berlusconi and British corporate lawyer David Mills went on trial on Tuesday for allegedly perverting the course of justice in two 1990s corruption trials.
The trial centres on a $600,000 bribe that Mills, the estranged husband of British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, is alleged to have received from Berlusconi.
Neither Mills nor Berlusconi was present in court.
The defendants, who are already on trial in Milan on separate corruption allegations, face sentences of three to eight years if convicted.
Mills helped Berlusconi set up a network of off-shore companies before the billionaire media magnate's 1994 debut into politics.
Prosecutors claim the lawyer received $600,000 as payment for not revealing details of Berlusconi's media empire in two trials against the ex-premier in 1997 and 1998.
Berlusconi and Mills deny wrongdoing, insisting that Mills received the money in question from Neapolitan shipping magnate Diego Attanasio.
The Berlusconi-Mills case has received scant attention in the Italian media but has made big waves in Britain, where Jowell was accused - and subsequently cleared - of breaching parliamentary standards by co-signing a mortgage with Mills allegedly linked to the $600,000.
Mills, who separated from his wife under the media glare on the case, said in a letter sent to his accountant in 2004 that the payment was a "gift" and that he had saved Berlusconi "from a great deal of trouble".
"I told no lies but I turned some very tricky corners," the letter said. He has since disowned that letter and insists the payment came from Attanasio.
Berlusconi's defence team said on Tuesday that it would not seek to spin out the trial.
"We won't use delaying tactics while waiting for the statute of limitations to kick in. We want this trial to be resolved on its own merits," it said.
BOTH ALSO INVOLVED IN MEDIASET FRAUD TRIAL.
Mills and Berlusconi, who lost Italy's 2006 general election and now heads the centre-right opposition, are also on trial in a related case concerning alleged fraud at Berlusconi's private TV network company Mediaset.
The trial, which began last November, involves a total of 12 defendants including Berlusconi, Mills, Mediaset Chairman Fedele Confalonieri and veteran Egyptian film producer and former director Frank (also known as Farouk) Agrama.
The defendants face charges ranging from tax fraud, false accounting and embezzlement to money laundering.
They all deny wrongdoing.
Several charges against Berlusconi and Mills were dropped in January under reforms to the statute of limitations law introduced when the former premier was in power.
Berlusconi still faces charges of tax fraud and false accounting relating to 1999 and embezzlement after July 1999 - charges which carry a sentence of up to six years.
Mills now faces charges of receiving stolen goods from August 2003 to July 2004 and for fraud for 1999 and 2000.
The case stems from Mediaset's purchase of TV rights for US films up until 1999 through two offshore firms.
Prosecutors believe the purchase costs of the US films were artificially inflated for tax evasion purposes.
The offshore firms were allegedly set up in the early 1990s by Mills for Berlusconi.
The 70-year-old Berlusconi, who is Italy's richest man, has been at the centre of numerous corruption investigations into his vast business empire.
He has always denied wrong-doing and has never received a guilty verdict. In some cases he has been cleared because of the statute of limitations or changes to the law introduced when he was in government.
