(ANSA) - Naples, October 23 - Former newspaper editor and
ex-associate of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi, Valter
Lavitola, on Thursday reached a plea bargain with the Naples
prosecutor's office for an eleven-month sentence on charges of
international corruption.
Lavitola implicitly admitted attempting to blackmail
Italian construction company Impregilo regarding alleged bribes
for Panamanian contracts.
In a separate case, Lavitola was indicted with Berlusconi
last October for allegedly bribing former senator Sergio De
Gregorio to switch political sides from the centre left to the
centre right, a move that led to the collapse of Romano Prodi's
centre-left government in 2008.
Lavitola is accused of acting as a go-between for a bribe
that allegedly totaled two million euros.
Lavitola gets 11-month plea bargain for int'l corruption
Accused of attempting to coerce Impregilo to build in Panama