Rome:
A high-profile corruption case came back to haunt Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, already reeling from disclosures over his links with a blonde teenager.
A Milan court on Tuesday released its full reasoning for convicting Berlusconi's British tax lawyer David Mills of accepting a 600,000-dollar bribe from him in exchange for false testimony.
Mills, the estranged husband of Britain's Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, gave "false testimony... in order to grant impunity to Silvio Berlusconi and (his holding company) Fininvest or at least to protect the considerable profits earned," according to the court's detailed findings.
"Berlusconi Corrupted Mills" screamed the front-page headline of the left-wing La Republica daily, on Wednesday.
Berlusconi bitterly rejected the court's statements as "outrageous" and deliberately "programmed" ahead of the June 6-7 EU polls.
In an excerpt from a forthcoming book by journalist Bruno Vespa, released by the prime minister's office on Wednesday, Berlusconi said: "Neither my businesses, nor myself for that matter, had reason to make such a payment to Mills. It is an total absurdity."
The court sentenced Mills to four and a half years in prison in the February ruling, which he is appealing.
A Milan court on Tuesday released its full reasoning for convicting Berlusconi's British tax lawyer David Mills of accepting a 600,000-dollar bribe from him in exchange for false testimony.
Mills, the estranged husband of Britain's Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, gave "false testimony... in order to grant impunity to Silvio Berlusconi and (his holding company) Fininvest or at least to protect the considerable profits earned," according to the court's detailed findings.
"Berlusconi Corrupted Mills" screamed the front-page headline of the left-wing La Republica daily, on Wednesday.
Berlusconi bitterly rejected the court's statements as "outrageous" and deliberately "programmed" ahead of the June 6-7 EU polls.
In an excerpt from a forthcoming book by journalist Bruno Vespa, released by the prime minister's office on Wednesday, Berlusconi said: "Neither my businesses, nor myself for that matter, had reason to make such a payment to Mills. It is an total absurdity."
The court sentenced Mills to four and a half years in prison in the February ruling, which he is appealing.
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