Berlusconi's Ruby case not split off despite bad health

(ANSA) - MILAN, MAY 26 - A Milan judge on Wednesday ruled that Silvio Berlusconi's case in the so-called Ruby Ter trial should not be be separated from those of other defendants because the ex-premier is seriously ill, despite please from both the prosecution and the defence.
    All defendants will go forward together, the judge ruled, with the next hearing being on September 8.
    The 84-year-old media billionaire has been in and out of hospital in recent months after suffering a bad case of COVID-19 last year.
    Berlusconi is accused of bribing witnesses to lie about his alleged "bunga bunga" sex parties at his home. He is among the 29 defendants, including several young women he allegedly bribed to say the parties were innocent affairs.
    The three-time premier's defence entered a plea earlier Wednesday saying that his health conditions continued to be "severe" and he faced "a not brief prognosis" due to long COVID.
    The prosecution also said the media mogul had "pluri-pathologies", was in a "chronic" state, and was suffering psychiatric and neurological symptoms that merited "attention" from the court.
    Berlusconi is however on the mend after being prescribed "absolute rest" after suffering a bout of severe 'long COVID' symptoms, the no.2 in his centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, ex-European Parliament president Antonio Tajani, said earlier this week.
    Berlusconi, 84, who had a heart valve replaced in 2016, said his experience with COVID last September was "the worst and most frightening in my life".
    The three-time former premier and media mogul caught the virus in Sardinia from his friend and fellow billionaire businessman, ex- Benetton and Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore.
    The Mediaset empire owner spent a week in hospital earlier this month with a fever due to a COVID vaccination and the lingering effects of his bout of the virus, and has been reported as still being seriously ill even after he left the Milan clinic.
    On Monday Tajani said his boss "is better, he's in a convalescent phase, and we're keeping him informed of everything. He's the leader of FI, I'm not replacing him. I hope that this moment of absolute rest ends as soon as possible".
    (ANSA).