Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, has been ordered to stand trial on charges he paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl and then used his political position to try and cover it up.
Cristina Di Censo, a Milan judge, handed down the indictment on Tuesday. The trial is set to begin on April 6.
The 74-year-old billionaire has denied the charges against him, saying they are politically motivated. However, his lawyers on Tuesday said they “didn’t expect anything else,” in response to the news.
Prosecutors bringing the case against Berlusconi allege he paid for sex with a “significant number” of young women including a Moroccan dancer nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer, who was 17 at the time.
The premier is also accused of using his influence to free her from custody after being arrested on suspicion of an unrelated theft.
A group of Milan judges, who conducted an investigation into the claims before seeking trial, say the premier acted in fear that her detention would have revealed her relationship to him.
But Berlusconi and Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, have both denied having sex, and the premier’s supporters say he helped release her from jail because he believed she was a relative of Hosni Mubarak, the recently ousted Egyptian president. More