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.
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