Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi failed yesterday to present himself to prosecutors investigating his Mediaset media empire for alleged tax evasion as had been requested, Italian media reported.

The Italian leader’s defence lawyers sent a letter to the Rome prosecutor’s office saying that Mr Berlusconi and his son Piersilvio, the deputy chairman of Mediaset, would not meet with prosecutors, the reports said. The allegations relate to Mediaset’s tax declarations for 2003 and 2004 as part of a wider inquiry against the company.

Mediaset has already firmly rejected the accusations as “absurdity”.

The company was founded by Mr Berlusconi in the 1970s and is now run by his family. It includes Italy’s three main private national television channels.

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