Berlusconi to face trial over prostitution scandal

MILAN,  (Reuters) – An Italian judge has ordered Prime  Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial in April on charges of  paying an underage girl for sex and abuse of office, although  there seemed no immediate risk the scandal would force him out.

Following weeks of scandal that have shaken his struggling  centre-right government, trial was set on Tuesday to start in a  criminal court in Milan on April 6, according to a statement  from the office of the city’s chief judge.
Berlusconi is not obliged to appear in person before the  panel of three judges on that day, nor is there any legal  obstacle to his continuing to hold office throughout any trial  proceedings, which could take years before any conviction.

Throughout several other legal cases, the 74-year-old  premier has kept the loyalty of lieutenants in his own party,  which he set up after making his fortune in business. There has  been no open push from his own allies for him to stand down.

“We did not expect anything different,” Piero Longo, one of  Berlusconi’s lawyers who sits in parliament for the ruling PDL  party, told reporters after the decision was announced.

Yet the decision is perhaps the most serious political blow  so far to Berlusconi, who has faced mounting public criticism as  he tries to shore up a precarious majority in parliament.

A survey this week in the left-leaning La Repubblica  newspaper showed that almost 50 percent of Italians believe the  accusations against him are true, although as many believe that  even if he is guilty, he will not be punished.

“He should resign because this situation has become  unbearable,” said Pierluigi Bersani, head of the opposition  Democratic Party.

But Justice Minister Angelino Alfano retorted: “What  happened to someone being presumed innocent?”

Italy’s largest Catholic magazine, Famiglia Cristiana, said  on its website that Berlusconi had perhaps met his nemesis  because the judge who indicted him and the judges who will hear  the case are all women.