Berlusconi back on trial as tax fraud court case resumes

LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be put on trial again as tax fraud court case resumes in Italy.

It is the first of four upcoming court cases that will train an intense spotlight on his private life and business practices, reports the Guardian.

However, the prime minister is not expected to be present at the resumption of the trial in which he is accused of tax fraud.

Among his fellow defendants, who also include several executives of his Mediaset television group, is the British lawyer David Mills, estranged husband of the former Labour minister Tessa Jowell.

The trial, and another in which Berlusconi is a defendant, was suspended in 2010 because of a law passed by the government providing the prime minister and others with immunity from prosecution while in office.

In the second trial, which is due to resume on 11 March, he is accused of paying Mills a 373,000 pounds bribe to withhold testimony.

Earlier this month, the prime minister was sent for trial in a fourth case involving his alleged payment of an underage sex worker and claims that he tried to cover up what he had done by abusing his position. (ANI)