Berlusconi laughs off graft probe

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has laughed off a new investigation against him and his son for tax evasion linked to his media empire.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has laughed off a new investigation against him and his son for tax evasion linked to his media empire.

Published Oct 16, 2010

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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi laughed off a new investigation against him and his son for tax evasion linked to his Mediaset media empire, Italian newspapers reported on Saturday.

“It makes me laugh except that my son has been dragged into it,” Berlusconi, 74, who is recovering in his luxury villa in Sardinia after an operation on his left hand, was quoted by La Repubblica daily as saying.

Il Giornale, which belongs to the Berlusconi family, quoted the prime minister as saying that the inquiry was “entirely predictable.”

“I'm used to it,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying.

Berlusconi and his son have been summoned for questioning on October 26 on allegations related to Mediaset's tax declarations for 2003 and 2004 as part of a wider inquiry against the company, judicial sources said on Friday.

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

Mediaset was founded by Berlusconi in the 1970s and is now run by his family. It includes Italy's three main private national television channels. - Sapa-AFP

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