from www.adnkronos.com – Italy’s sex-scandal mired prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will not attend a hearing in Milan, where magistrates want to question him over allegations he used an underage prostitute and abused his powers of office, his lawyers announced on Friday.

“The prime minister contends that the Milan magistrates have no jurisdiction to investigate the crimes he allegedly committed,” the lawyers said in a note sent to Milan’s chief public prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati.

The premier’s lawyers said the case should be handled by a special court for ministers. Prosecutors had asked Berlusconi to meet them for questioning on Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

Berlusconi denies wrongdoing and reiterated his often stated claim that he is the victim of persecution by “leftwing” magistrates.

The Milan prosecutors working on the probe have prepared a 389-dossier on the prostitution allegations involving numerous young women and several of his entourage including wiretap transcripts.

In the second televised address this week, Berlusconi on Wednesday said his government would remain in office and the Milan prosecutors should be “punished” for attempting to “subvert the popular vote”.

The Italian opposition has called for Berlusconi’s resignation. So far, politicians from the ruling conservative coalition have defended him, however.

But the case has drawn criticism from the Catholic church and on Friday, one of Berluconi’s allies, interior ministry undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano said in a newspaper interview he was “perplexed” by Berlusconi’s refusal to be questioned in the probe.

The probe’s 389-page dossier has been leaked to the internet and the prostitution allegations and wiretaps which have been published in the media over the past week have stunned many Italians.

Italy’s president Giorgio Napolitano said the nation was “in turmoil” and has called for a “complete examination” of the allegations by the courts as soon as possible.

The Italian Conference of Bishops was due on Monday to examine the allegations, which centre on a teenage Moroccan nightclub dancer who allegedly had sex with Berlusconi when she was underage and was among more than 20 women who attended erotic parties at his Milan villa.

The teenager, Karima El Mahroug, and Berlusconi both deny they had sex when she was 17 years old. El Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby, is now 18, and claimed in a TV interview this week the premier had “never laid a finger” on her.

Using an underage prostitute is a criminal offence in Italy. Berlusconi is also alleged to have abused his office by pressuring police to release El Mahrough from custody in May 2010 when she was detained on a theft charge.