Italy: An Italian prosecutor has asked a court in Milan to sentence the prime minister to eight years in jail for bribing judges as his four-year corruption trial reached its closing stages.
Mr Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of bribing judges to stop the sale of state-owned food chain SME to a rival businessman in the 1980s, before he entered politics. He has denied the charges and says he is the victim of a politically motivated campaign by left-wing magistrates.
"I ask that the accused be sentenced to eight years in prison," Ms Ilda Boccassini told the three judges presiding over the trial. She urged them to convict "the businessman who had them [ the judges] on his payroll".
Defence lawyers are due to sum up their case in early December. A verdict is expected late this year or in early 2005.
Mr Berlusconi (68) has in the past appeared in the trial in Milan's central court to state his innocence but he was not there yesterday.
Since entering politics in 1994, Mr Berlusconi has been investigated in numerous cases connected to his business empire, which spans media and finance.
The businessman-turned-politician has been convicted in several cases but had the sentences overturned on appeal or thrown out because of an amnesty law or statute of limitation rules.
In the SME case, Mr Berlusconi was initially put on trial with several other defendants. However his trial was split off after his coalition government approved a law in 2003 giving the prime minister and other high officials immunity from prosecution.
Italy's constitutional court annulled the law at the start of this year and his trial resumed in April.
In November last year, a friend and political ally of Mr Berlusconi, Cesare Previti, was acquitted of a charge relating to the SME case.
However, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail for bribing a judge in 1991 to keep him on friendly terms with Mr Berlusconi's business empire, charges also faced by the prime minister.
Previti, who served as a minister in Mr Berlusconi's first government in 1994, has appealed against his conviction.
One of the judges accused of taking bribes was also given a prison sentence while another was cleared.