Milan prosecutors on Friday sought the indictment of Premier Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly paying a British corporate lawyer for testimony in two corruption trials.
The lawyer, David Mills, husband of British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, is not being accused of perjury because of the statute of limitations, judicial sources said. Instead, as for Berlusconi, prosecutors have asked for an indictment for "corruption in judicial acts."
The case centres on a $600,000 payment prosecutors claim Mills received for not revealing key details in the trials - in which Berlusconi was eventually acquitted. Berlusconi, Mills and the other people involved in the two probes have all firmly denied all wrongdoing. Mills worked on a web of offshore accounts for the media magnate from the early 1980s to the mid '90s.
The Berlusconi-Mills case has received scant attention in the Italian media - despite claims it may affect the April 9 general election.
But it 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. News of the indictment requests led British TV news reports on all channels Friday. Downing Street declined to comment.
Berlusconi lawyer Niccolo' Ghedini said: "It's indecent. They want to influence the (Italian general election) vote."
Italian Justice Ministry Undersecretary Jole Santelli of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party said: "The Milan prosecutor's office is pitching in to the electoral campaign." One of Mills' attorneys, Filippo Cecconi, told reporters in Milan: "We will defend ourselves at the preliminary hearing. Our request for further investigations was not unwarranted because, I repeat, the investigation had not been in our view completed."
Mills, who has temporarily separated from his wife, has said in a letter to his accountant that the payment was a "gift" sent in token of gratitude for saving Berlusconi "from a sea of troubles."
In another case, prosecutors have asked for Berlusconi to be sent to trial, along with 13 other people, for his alleged role in a fraud case involving his family's television company Mediaset.
A decision on those indictment requests has already been set for April 11, right after the general election. A ruling on the Mills case indictment requests is expected to come before the vote, according to press reports. After Friday's indictment requests, other members of Berlusconi's centre-right alliance angrily reiterated claims the Milan prosecutors' moves were designed to damage the premier's chances of re-election.
The premier has repeatedly accused Milan prosecutors of subjecting him to a politically-motivated witchhunt.
