Ex-TV news anchor Emilio Fede
was indicted Friday on extortion charges.
The 84-year-old allegedly blackmailed Mediaset executives
with fake compromising photos when he was fired after 20 years
at the head of TG4 news service.
Prosecutors say Fede in 2012 mandated his former personal
trainer Gaetano Ferri and two women named as Maria Madeo and
Michela Faioni to assemble fake photomontages featuring Mediaset
executive Mauro Crippa.
He then allegedly used the photos to obtain a better
severance package.
Fede was also indicted for coercion for allegedly sending
Ferri threatening text messages after the latter "dissociated
himself from an alleged plot to extort two million euros from
(Silvio) Berlusconi in exchange for not publishing compromising
photos of Crippa".
Berlusconi owns Mediaset.
The first hearing in the trial will be held February 2.
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