Berlusconi fails to win court order

Silvio Berlusconi has failed in an emergency bid to obtain a High Court order preventing evidence being taken in a UK court relating to corruption allegations. Italy’s former Prime Minister made the application for an interim injunction pending an...

Silvio Berlusconi has failed in an emergency bid to obtain a High Court order preventing evidence being taken in a UK court relating to corruption allegations.

Italy’s former Prime Minister made the application for an interim injunction pending an attempt to bring a full-scale legal challenge over the issue.

He sought the order to prevent English lawyer David Mills giving video-link evidence to Milan from City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

His application was considered in private and refused by Mr Justice Bean, sitting in London.

Mr Mills and his wife, Tessa Jowell, a former Labour Cabinet minister, separated in 2006 when she admitted being unaware that he had paid off part of their mortgage with £350,000 at the centre of an Italian bribery case involving Mr Berlusconi.

Mr Mills was charged along with Berlusconi with corruption by the Milan District Court. Mr Berlusconi is facing a trial – previously suspended under a temporary immunity law – on bribery allegations involving Mills.

He denies wrongdoing and has complained that the charges are politically motivated.

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