Trial postponed
January 15, 2010
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was absent on Friday for the first hearing of his corruption trial, in which he is accused of bribing a British lawyer to lie on the stand.
Berlusconi's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said Berlusconi hadn't planned to show up at Friday's "technical" hearing, adding that the Italian premier would attend when "issues of substance" were at hand.
Prosecutors accuse Berlusconi of ordering the 1997 payment of $600,000 (416,000 euros) to lawyer David Mills in exchange for his false testimony at two hearings in other corruption cases.
Mills was sentenced in February to four-and-a-half years in prison for accepting the bribe. He maintains his innocence and is currently appealing the conviction.
Berlusconi's part of the trial resumed after Italy's Constitutional Court overturned a law last year protecting him from being prosecuted while in office.
At Friday's hearing, the three-judge panel rejected a defense motion arguing for a complete restart of Berlusconi's portion of the trial. They suspended the trial until Feb. 27, pending a ruling on Mills' appeal.
glb/AP/Reuters
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar