Silvio Berlusconi was sent to trial Friday for allegedly bribing a businessman to lie about claims he supplied the former Italian prime minister with prostitutes a decade ago.
Prosecutors said Berlusconi gave Gianpaolo Tarantini €500,000 in cash to say that the then-PM did not know the women were being paid to attend parties at his villa. They also alleged that Berlusconi found the businessman a job and hired lawyers for him.
The defense team of the three-time prime minister said they are confident he will be “completely acquitted,” according to Reuters. Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing in the case.
The trial is set to start on February 4 in the southern city of Bari and is the latest in a long line of legal cases involving the 82-year-old.
In 2014, a court of appeal overturned a seven-year prison sentence for Berlusconi, saying he is not guilty of paying an escort for sexual services in 2010, when she was underage.
After a four-year jail sentence for tax fraud in 2013, later converted into a year of community service, he was barred from holding public office and stripped of his seat in parliament. That ban has now ended.