Berlusconi might face new trial

ROME (AP) ― Already facing criticism over Italy’s financial crisis and engulfed in a sex scandal, Premier Silvio Berlusconi might face another trial in Milan.

The latest storm surrounding Berlusconi centers on a 2005 banking scandal. A Milan judge said Thursday that Berlusconi has pushed for the publication in a newspaper owned by his family of wiretapped conversations that should have remained secret because of an ongoing investigation.

No decision has been made on whether to indict the premier. The final word rests with another magistrate in Milan, and no date on when that decision might come has been set.

But the latest judicial case mounted pressure on a premier who already faces four active legal cases and is politically weakened. Berlusconi’s supporters called the move further proof that Milan magistrates are out to get the premier. His lawyer Niccolo Ghedini called the charge “absolutely incredible” in a country where wiretapped conversations are constantly leaked and published in the media.

The premier is facing three separate trials on charges including corruption, tax fraud and accusations that he paid for sex with a minor. The sex trial resumes next month. A fourth case is at a preliminary phase.

The 74-year-old Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing and insisted he is the victim of politically-driven magistrates intent on ousting him from power.

At the time of the scandal, Italian newspaper Il Giornale, owned by Berlusconi’s family, published a conversation between a bank official and a political rival of Berlusconi.