Prosecutors seek bribery trial for Italian ex-PM Berlusconi

Bari (Italy), Oct 3 (IANS)  Italian prosecutors on Monday requested that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the former editor of Italian daily Avanti, Valter Lavitola, stand trial for bribing a businessman to lie to magistrates probing the escort scandal that engulfed Berlusconi in 2009.

Berlusconi tasked Lavitola with paying Gianpaolo Tarantini to lie about the 26 women including escorts who he recruited for sex parties at Berlusconi's homes in Rome and Sardinia between 2008 and 2009, according to prosecutors in Tarantini's native city of Bari in southern Italy.

Tarantini was among four people jailed by a court in Bari in November 2015 for recruiting prostitutes for orgies at Berlusconi's residences on more than 20 occasions. He received a prison sentence of seven years and 10 months for his pimping role.

Three other defendants at the trial were acquitted.