Ex-Senator Paolo Rossi testified
Wednesday to being offered a bribe by another ex-Senator during
Romano Prodi's 2006-2008 government to change political sides
and join Silvio Berlusconi's center-right bloc.
"Antonio Tomassini offered me a sum of money and said it
wouldn't change Berlusconi's life but it would change mine".
The ex-premier is on trial for allegedly paying a different
former centre-left Senator, Sergio De Gregorio, three million
euros to switch sides and undermine Prodi.
Prodi's government fell after losing the support of the
Senate, leading to new elections that Berlusconi won.
De Gregorio has admitted not declaring to tax
authorities two million euros he received and plea-bargained a
20-month sentence.
The Italian Senate is listed among the plaintiffs.
In court on Wednesday, Rossi recalled that Tomassini, a
doctor who once headed the Senate's health committee, was a
former member of the defunct Christian Democrats as he was, and
said he approached him as a friend and his wife's gynecologist.
Rossi said the conversation switched to politics when
Tomassini said "the Prodi government has no future, and it's
absolutely fundamental that Berlusconi return to office".
According to Rossi, Tomassini then offered him money and
said the deal could be sealed shortly at Berlusconi's villa in
Sardinia.
Berlusconi, a 77-year-old media magnate, continues to
lead his center-right Forza Italia party from outside
parliament after being banned from public office for a binding
tax-fraud conviction last year.
Valter Lavitola, an associate of the ex-premier's, is also
on trial in Naples for allegedly acting as a go-between in the
alleged bribery.
Prosecutors have claimed Lavitola tried to bribe other
Senators who have not been identified as well.
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