Silvio Berlusconi mistakenly says he has been paying millions to judges

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, on Friday made an embarrassing gaffe when he said he had spent millions of euros on "judges" as part of an impassioned plea that he was the most persecuted man in history.

Mr Berlusconi quickly corrected his mistake, clarifying that as a result of the multiple investigations in which he had been embroiled he had spent 200 million euros on "consultants and lawyers". But the slip has added poignancy since it came just six days after Fininvest, Mr Berlusconi's holding company, was ordered to pay almost £700 million in damages to a rival firm after being found guilty of bribing a judge. The case dated back to a takeover battle in the 1990s. The prime minister's latest attack on the judiciary follows his defeat this week in the country's highest court, which overturned a law that protected him from prosecution while he was in office. Mr Berlusconi argues that he is being persecuted and that he should be above the law for now since the investigations leave him with no time to govern. The defeat has paved the way for several cases against him to be reopened, including accusations that he bribed David Mills, his British former tax accountant, in exchange for lying in court. "I am without a doubt the person who has been most persecuted by judges in the entire history of the world and the history of man"... Telegraph