SILVIO BERLUSCONI’S WOES are multiplying by the week, with news in the last few days of his impending trial for bribing a senator only the latest looming judicial threat for the flamboyant tycoon.
The months ahead could see him kicked out of parliament for the first time in two decades, forced to do community service and barred from taking part in elections for the next six years.
Here are the cases that Berlusconi is currently battling in the Italian courts:
Senator Bribe Case:
Image: AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito
Berlusconi’s trial over the alleged €3 million bribe to get a senator, Sergio De Gregorio (pictured above), to join his party’s ranks will begin on February 11, 2014.
Tax Fraud Case:
Image: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
The Senate is due to hold a vote in the coming months on whether or not to exclude Berlusconi from parliament over a tax fraud case – his first and so far only definitive criminal conviction.
A court is also due to decide by early next year whether he will have to do community service or house arrest, and where he would do his service.
Bunga Bunga Case:
Image: AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File
A court next year will hear Berlusconi’s appeal against a seven-year suspended sentence for having sex with an underage 17-year-old prostitute when he was prime minister and abusing his official powers.
He is also appealing the lifetime ban from parliament that was included in the conviction over his liaison with Karima El-Mahroug, (pictured above), an exotic dancer better known as “Ruby the Heart Stealer”.
Prosecutors in the same case also accuse Berlusconi and his lawyers of bribing witnesses – many of them alleged participants in his Bunga Bunga orgies – to provide false testimony.
Prostitutes Case:
Image: AP Photo/Angelo Carconi
Prosecutors in Bari, southern Italy, have filed charges against Berlusconi for allegedly paying hush money in a case revolving around a ring of high-class escorts that were purportedly paid to attend his parties and sleep with him.
Prosecutors accuse him of paying Bari businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini (pictured above), who helped organise the parties at Berlusconi’s residences, to keep quiet.
Wiretap Case:
Image: AP Photo/Sandro Pace
Berlusconi is also appealing a one-year sentence for leaking a confidential police wiretap in a newspaper controlled by his family, in an attempt to damage a left-wing political rival.
The case is due to expire under the statute of limitations imminently.
Divorce Case:
Image: AP Photo/Sandro Pace
Berlusconi has been ordered to pay his former wife Veronica Lario €3 million a month to allow her to keep up her luxurious lifestyle.
He is appealing the court ruling.
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