Italian judges to request 'fast-track' sex trial for Berlusconi

Italian judges were preparing Wednesday to request that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi face immediate trial over sex allegations and alleged abuse of powers.

Reuters/Alessandro Garofalo

Chief prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati has finished an inquiry into allegations that the 74-year-old premier paid for sex with a nightclub dancer nicknamed Ruby the Heart-Stealer, who was a minor at the time.

Berlusconi is also accused of then improperly using his power as prime minister to get Ruby off the hook after she was arrested for alleged theft in May.

The magistrates are thought to have sufficient evidence to skip the preliminary hearings and ask for an immediate trial on both charges.

Italian law dictates that a fast-track procedure of summary judgement can be requested by the public prosecutor's office when there is clear evidence of offence.

Should the request lack sufficient proof to warrant the speedy process, however, magistrates will then have to try to bring Berlusconi to trial through the usual, lengthier channels.

The prime minister has slammed the inquiry into his involvement with Ruby as a plot against him by the country's judges, claiming he has never paid for sex, let alone with minors.

Separate corruption and tax evasion trials involving the prime minister will resume in February and March respectively.

While Berlusconi has never been definitively convicted so far, the prime minister risks three years in prison if found guilty of paying minors for sex, and from six to eight years for abuse of power.

An abundance of bad press concerning the billionaire magnate including allegations of orgies and abject details from wiretaps, as well as fierce condemnation from the Church, seemed to have little effect on Italian voters in January’s polls.