Italian PM Berlusconi faces trial threat

Italian prosecutors filed a request today to bring Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to trial
immediately on charges of paying for sex with an underage girl and improperly pressuring police to release her from custody, accusations Berlusconi denies.

If the judge agrees to the request, the trial could begin within a couple of months.

“This prosecution is extremely significant because it will bring to the fore once again all Berlusconi foibles…which he has been trying to cover up,” says James Walston, the Chair of the department of International Relations at The American University of Rome.

Berlusconi also faces the resumptions of three other trials for corruption and tax fraud in the next month after Italy's top court struck down the automatic immunity from prosecution he enjoyed thanks to a law passed by his government.

“In other countries, somebody who has these sort of charges against him steps down in order to clear his name, and lets other people get on with the business of governing,” Walston told Vatican Radio. “Berlusconi doesn’t do that, and this is Italy’s major problem.”

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Prof. James Walston: