Thaindian News

Rome, Oct 16 (IANS/AKI) Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s lawyer has dismissed reports that the premier and his son Piersilvio are targets of a fresh tax-evasion probe related to the family-controlled media empire.

“It is nothing new,” said Pier Longo, one of the prime minister’s lawyers. “It’s a small part of the investigation that is taking place in Milan.”

The Rome investigation is linked to a case in Milan in which Berlusconi and 11 other people are on trial charged with tax fraud and false accounting relating to his Mediaset media company’s purchase of film rights in the US.

A new investigation was opened in Rome because it relates to a Mediaset business headquartered in the Italian capital. Both Berlusconis have been summoned to the Rome prosecutors’ office for questioning Oct 26.

Mediaset’s Milan trial has been put on hold until Italy’s Constitutional Court rules on a law granted Berlusconi and other ministers in his government immunity from legal action for up to 18 months. The ruling is expected by the end of the year.

The Rome probe is investigating Mediaset deputy chairman Piersilvio, Silvio’s 41 year-old son, as well as other senior company managers.

The Milan-based company denied any wrongdoing by its managers.

“Mediaset reaffirms that the cinema rights involved by the investigation were acquired at market prices and that all of the company’s accounts and tax declarations have been prepared in full compliance with criteria of transparency and current legislation,” it said in a statement.

“The documentation will demonstrate that neither Piersilvio nor the other managers accused of tax fraud is in any way involved,” the company said.

Conservative Berlusconi, who founded Italy’s largest private broadcaster in the 1970s, alleges he is the victim of political persecution by the country’s judiciary, which he accuses of being leftist sympathiser.

–IANS/AKI
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