Berlusconi under growing pressure

In separate trial Previti and Berlusconi accused of bribing judges to favor PM's commercial interests. Story Tools

ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi came under pressure on Wednesday after a friend and political ally was convicted of corruption, but the Italian leader was expected to survive the latest challenge to his hold on power.

Cesare Previti, defence minister in Berlusconi's 1994 government, his former personal lawyer and a parliamentarian in his Forza Italia party, was sentenced to 11 years in prison late on Tuesday for bribing judges in two corporate takeover battles.

The verdict puts Berlusconi on the spot. His family's main holding company Fininvest benefited from alleged payoffs in the Previti case, and Berlusconi faces similar corruption charges in a separate case that could climax this summer.

"It's an ugly situation for Silvio Berlusconi," a columnist wrote in La Repubblica daily.

The prime minister is on trial for allegedly bribing judges to help him win state-owned food company SME in the mid-1980s.

Judges could rule on the case while Italy holds the rotating EU presidency in the second half of the year -- a potential major embarrassment for Berlusconi.

Nobody wants a crisis

But pollsters and political experts said the media mogul turned politician would likely dodge political trouble in the short term due to gaping divisions in the centre-left opposition and Berlusconi's own handling of the crisis.

"I rule out the possibility that a conviction would have an immediate impact on the stability of the government," said Francesco Perfetti, political professor at Universita Luiss.

During his first government in 1994, Berlusconi took a political blow when he was told while hosting a United Nations conference that he was under investigation for corruption. The scandal contributed to the collapse of his coalition.

"This time, no one has any interest in provoking a crisis, especially not the left," Perfetti said.

Berlusconi has indicated he would not resign if found guilty and has threatened to turn to the electorate, tired after years of corruption trials and revolving-door governments, for snap polls. Pollsters predict he would win, and Berlusconi's opponents on Wednesday were not calling on him to step down.

But a conviction would cast a shadow over his political career and could sink his hopes one day to become president. The SME trial involves alleged bribes paid to judges, the most serious charge yet brought against Berlusconi.

In 1985, businessman Carlo De Benedetti put in bid to buy state-owned food and catering group SME.

Berlusconi formed a consortium to mount a higher bid and prosecutors allege it paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes so a judge would rule against De Benedetti, although in the end neither won control of the company.

"Political persecution'

Previti was found guilty of bribing judges to favour the Berlusconi family's Fininvest company. Fininvest, which controls Italy's largest commercial broadcaster Mediaset, was fighting De Benedetti for control of Italy's biggest publisher Mondadori.

In both the Previti case and his own trial, the prime minister has accused Milan's pool of graft-busting magistrates of orchestrating a politically motivated campaign against him. He has denied all charges of wrongdoing.

But De Benedetti glowed on Wednesday saying the Previti verdict "proved what we have always said."

Previti said he would appeal, a process which will further drag out the case following the three-year trial. He remains free until he exhausts avenues of appeal.

Lesser charges were initially brought against Berlusconi, too, but dropped because of the statute of limitations.

Berlusconi's coalition has sponsored a series of bills, including trying to restore political immunity from trial, that critics say would help him avoid a quick conviction.

"The politicisation of certain magistrates, which has come to condition our political life, is a problem that should be solved for the good of our country," Berlusconi said on Tuesday.

Judges on Wednesday rallied to their colleagues' defence saying no one, and especially not the prime minister, "should be permitted to delegitimise the judiciary."

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