ROME, March 31 -- A judge at the center of an inquiry into the alleged bribing of magistrates by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was placed under house arrest Sunday and released from the Milan prison where he had spent the last three weeks. Renato Squillante, 71, the former head of Rome's preliminary inquiry judges, returned to his home in the capital, looking tired and drawn and with a long beard. The senior magistrate was granted house arrest on health grounds by Milan magistrates who are probing allegations that he received bribes from Berlusconi and distributed them to other colleagues in Rome in order to secure favorable verdicts in court cases concerning Berlusconi's companies. A witness has alleged that some of the bribes were paid by Cesare Previti, a lawyer for Berlusconi's Fininvest media group who became defense minister in the Berlusconi government in 1994. Italian newspapers reported Sunday that the Milan investigators had found documentary proof Berlusconi made a 15 billion lire ($10 million) payment in 1991 to the now discredited Socialist leader Bettino Craxi. The papers said the magistrates had received confirmation from Switzerland that the payment was made by an offshore company set up by Fininvest and administered by executives from Berlusconi's company. 'The real question is, what did Craxi give Berlusconi in exchange for 15 billion lire?' said Roberto Calderoli, secretary of the Northern League. Berlusconi has denied the charges and says he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt.
He has said the payment in question was made for film rights to a Tunisian film producer and had nothing to do with Craxi. The Socialist leader and former prime minister, who is currently in exile in Tunisia, was a close personal friend of Berlusconi's. Observers said Craxi has become deeply unpopular as a perceived symbol of Italy's deep-rooted political corruption and evidence of a close link between him and Berlusconi could damage the media magnate's hopes of returning to power after the April 21 general election. Berlusconi heads a center-right coalition which is competing against a rival center-left grouping, despite the fact that he is currently on trial in Milan for allegedly having authorized the payment of bribes to finance police tax inspectors by Fininvest officials.
