Milan prosecutors demanded this Wednesday that former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi be sentenced to six years in prison for bribing witnesses in a juvenile prostitution case in 2013.
Berlusconi is accused of paying 24 people, mostly young people in his evening parties, to lie in a previous trial, where he was accused of having paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan ballerina in a nightclub.
The scandal over the so-called "Bunga Bunga" holidays contributed to the fall of Berlusconi as prime minister in 2011, marking the end of his fourth government.
Berlusconi, the leader of the center-right Forza Italia party, pleaded not guilty in that case and pleaded not guilty in the subsequent trial.
Berlusconi's lawyer, Federico Cecconi, said he was not surprised by prosecutors' request for jail and was convinced his client would be acquitted. "We believe there is no crime," he told reporters.
Prosecutors also sought sentences of one to six years for the other 27 defendants in the case.