Judge orders Berlusconi stand trial in fraud case

MILAN, July 7 (Reuters) An Italian judge today ordered ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial for alleged fraud at broadcaster Mediaset, the latest in a string of court cases involving the country's richest man.

The case, which Berlusconi has dismissed as politically motivated, follows a four-year investigation into claims of embezzlement, false accounting, tax fraud and money laundering in television rights deals between 1994 and 1999.

Berlusconi, a flamboyant showman who defied national opinion and backed US President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, could face up to six years in jail for tax fraud if convicted.

But the 69-year-old has managed to avoid jail in at least seven previous graft trials. He was found guilty four times, but verdicts were overturned on appeal or the statute of limitations applied and charges were dropped.

The decision to go to trial follows Berlusconi's razor-thin defeat in April elections, which saw Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister ousted from power in what he angrily claimed was a fraudulent result.

Nicknamed ''The Knight'', Berlusconi had appeared unstoppable in his push for economic and political power, winning the 2001 vote with a ''you can be rich like me'' message.

CRUISE SHIP CROONER He loves telling anecdotes about how he built his fortune from scratch, selling crumpled-up newspaper to light stoves in post-war Italy and using his charm as a cruise ship crooner, finally moving into property and then into the media business.

''It was a predictable decision, considering the previous hearings in Milan,'' said Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini after Friday's ruling. ''They haven't allowed crucial witnesses for the defence to be heard.'' Among the 13 people also ordered to stand trial was British lawyer David Mills, estranged husband of a British government minister, and Mediaset Chairman Fedele Confalonieri, judicial and legal sources said.

For two of the 13, the statute of limitations applies, meaning they will not be tried.

Mediaset in a statement denied any crimes and said its executives and directors had always acted correctly.

Berlusconi applied all his salesmanship to this year's bitter political campaign, launching into angry tirades against his rivals and attacking the left with claims that communists in China had used babies as fertiliser for fields.

He repeatedly accused magistrates of working on behalf of the centre-left and said they would pursue him if he lost power.

Prosecutors suspect a U.S. firm sold television and cinema rights to two offshore firms controlled by a Berlusconi family holding company, Fininvest.

The offshore firms then allegedly inflated the prices and sold them to Mediaset, controlled by Fininvest, to avoid Italian taxes and create a slush fund.

In a related case, Milan prosecutors have accused Berlusconi of paying Mills a kickback of 600,000 dollars for not revealing details of his media empire when Mills testified in two court cases.

Mills has also denied wrongdoing.

Shares in Mediaset closed 1.7 percent lower at 8.9 euros.

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