(ANSA) - Bari, November 14 - Trial opened Friday for Silvio
Berlusconi and former Avanti newspaper editor Valter Lavitola on
charges of bribing Bari businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini to lie
to investigators probing the former premier's so-called Bunga
Bunga sex parties.
Neither defendant attended the hearing at the Bari court in
which they are charged with pressuring Tarantini to perjure
himself during a 2009 investigation into whether he provided
escorts and attractive women for sex parties in the
private home of the ex-premier and billionaire media magnate in
2008 and 2009.
Prosecutors argue Berlusconi used Lavitola to pay Tarantini
20,000 euros a month to keep quiet. He also allegedly put
500,000 euros in Tarantini's name in a Uruguay account, and paid
his legal expenses and rent on his flat in the tony Parioli
neighborhood in Rome.
Bunga Bunga hush money trial opens for Berlusconi, Lavitola
Media mogul, Avanti editor accused of bribing Tarantini