Berlusconi plots trips 'to stall his trials'

Rome (Italy), Nov.8 : Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of planning more than a dozen foreign trips in an attempt to ensure that two trials, in which he is to be accused of bribery and fraud, move so slowly that the judges will have to abandon them.

Two cases against him will be heard in Milan later this month after he was stripped of immunity from prosecution, The Times reports.

Berlusconi, 73, is due to go on trial on November 16 for tax evasion and false accounting over the purchase of television rights by his company Mediaset. He has already announced he will be in Rome for a United Nations summit on that date.

On November 27 a second court case is expected to see Berlusconi accused of bribing David Mills, the British lawyer and estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, with 378,000 pounds to give false evidence. Mills is planning to appeal his his sentence in the supreme court.

Berlusconi plans to argue that he is too busy to attend on the dates set by the court.

Trips are also planned to Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, Copenhagen, Minsk, Israel, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in the coming months.

European Union summits require further journeys.

One of his lawyers said: 'He wants to be free to take part in his trial when he is free to participate.'

--ANI