Milan, Italy (CNN) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be tried on charges of sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power, an Italian judge ruled today.
Judge Cristina di Censo decided the trial would begin April 6, Italian judicial authorities confirmed.
Three judges will preside over the criminal trial in Milan. All of them are women.
Prosecutors in Milan filed the request for trial last week.
Berlusconi denies the charges, and his lawyers have argued that the Milan courts do not have the authority to try a prime minister or jurisdiction over the case because of where the alleged crimes were committed.
Milan chief prosecutor Edmundo Bruti Liberati requested the fast-track trial on charges that Berlusconi paid for sex with nightclub dancer Karima El Mahrough, who was 17 at the time of the alleged activity, and later intervened with the police after she was arrested on an unrelated charge.
An associate of Berlusconi’s denied that the prime minister had wild parties at his house or that she had procured girls for him to have sex with.
