ROME (AP):
MILAN PROSECUTORS said yesterday they have requested that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi be indicted on corruption charges.
The premier is accused of ordering the payment in 1997 of at least US$600,000 (euro500,000) to British lawyer David Mills whose indictment also was being sought in exchange for the lawyer's false testimony in two trials against Berlusconi. Both men deny the allegations.
A judge must now rule on the indictment requests. Prosecutors said there was no indication of when a decision on the indictments would come. Such decisions have been known to take weeks.
TIMED TO HURT
Prosecutors have said they had rushed to complete the probe and to try to bring the case to trial after Parliament passed a reform, backed by Berlusconi's government, which reduced the statute of limitations on the charges.
Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, said in a statement that the prosecutors' move was timed to hurt the premier before April 9-10 national elections.
"Here it comes, in time for the elections, the voting statement of the Milan prosecutors' office," Bonaiuti said.
The conservative premier has repeatedly accused Milan prosecutors of siding with the left and waging a political vendetta against him following years of probes and prosecutions.
In past cases, Berlusconi was either acquitted or the charges were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. He has always maintained his innocence.
Berlusconi's lawyer did not immediately return calls to his cellphone.
