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Trial Opens Against Italy's PM Berlusconi

   VOA News  February 28, 2011
   Italian  Prime  Minister  Silvio  Berlusconi  looks  on as he attend a
   meeting with Confcommercio in Milan, February 28, 2011

Photo: Reuters

   Italian  Prime  Minister  Silvio  Berlusconi  looks  on as he attend a
   meeting with Confcommercio in Milan, February 28, 2011

   The  first  of  several  trials  against Italy's Prime Minister Silvio
   Berlusconi re-opened Monday after the country's supreme court stripped
   him of immunity.
   Monday's court case focuses on charges of tax fraud in the purchase of
   TV rights for U.S. movies through offshore companies, that are part of
   Mr. Berlusconi's Mediaset media empire.
   The  prime  minister has denied the allegations and did not show up in
   court for the trial, the first of several against him.
   Mr.  Berlusconi  faces  a separate trial in April on charges of having
   paid  for sex with an underage nightclub dancer and trying to cover it
   up.
   Additional  charges against the prime minister include corruption, and
   another case related to the current Mediaset trial.
   Earlier  this  month,  hundreds  of  thousands of women marched across
   Italy demanding that Mr. Berlusconi resign.
   Mr. Berlusconi has denied all the charges against him, saying they are
   politically  driven,  and  has  insisted that he intends to finish his
   term in office, which ends in 2013.