Berlusconi to stand trial for statutory rape

From NPR.

An Italian judge ordered Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday to face a fast-track trial on charges that he paid for sex with a minor and then tried to cover it up. The trial, which is set to begin April 6, will be heard by a panel of three judges — all of them women.


The sex scandal engulfing Berlusconi has incensed many Italian women. An estimated 1 million women in more than 200 towns nationwide took to the streets Sunday to demand his resignation.


Berlusconi made a phone call to one of his own TV networks, in what has become his preferred means of communication, to label the protest shameful.


"I saw the usual one-sided forces mobilized against me by the left, which use any pretext to try to topple an adversary they can't beat at the polls," he said.

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