Berlusconi faces new trial on corruption charges Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi could lose his parliamentary immunity after a vote is taken in the Senate in mid-November Silvio Berlusconi has been ordered to stand trial on charges of bribing a senator who alleges that Italy's former prime minister paid him €3m - including €2m in cash - to switch parties and help bring down the last centre-left government in 2008. A Naples judge on Wednesday authorised the indictment of the 77-year-old leader of Italy's main centre-right party on charges of corruption. A preliminary hearing for his trial has been set for next February. The new case against Mr Berlusconi will fuel tensions ahead of a vote expected in the senate in mid-November on whether to expel him from parliament as a result of his conviction for tax fraud in August. Mr Berlusconi has expressed fears to his closest supporters that prosecutors in Naples will seek his arrest in connection with the bribery case should he be ousted from the senate and lose his parliamentary immunity. Prime Minister Enrico Letta's left-right coalition depends on Mr Berlusconi's People of Liberty party for its majority in the senate. Despite divisions in the party that forced Mr Berlusconi to abandon an attempt to bring down the government on October 2, politicians warn that its survival cannot be taken for granted. "We have no idea what might happen the day after the senate votes on his expulsion," said Deborah Bergamini, a centre-right parliamentarian close to Mr Berlusconi. She denounced the judiciary as a "grotesque" system abused by prosecutors for their own political ends. Mr Berlusconi has angrily denied the bribery accusations, branding them as the latest effort by what he calls a group of leftwing prosecutors and judges to destroy him. The three-time former prime minister is also involved in two other trials in which he has appealed against convictions for paying for sex with an underage prostitute, and authorising the publication of a police wiretap. We have no idea what might happen the day after the senate votes on his expulsion Deborah Bergamini Sergio De Gregorio, a former senator, has told prosecutors that he received €3m from Mr Berlusconi through an intermediary in return for withdrawing his support from the centre-left government led by Romano Prodi that had a wafer-thin majority in the senate. The Naples judge, Amelia Primavera, on Wednesday accepted a plea bargain for Mr De Gregorio, who was sentenced to 20 months in jail. "I have cleared my conscience as far as possible and apologised for what I did," the former senator told Sky24 television. Mr Berlusconi's lawyers have said some money was paid to Mr De Gregorio to help his association for Italians abroad but that it had no connection with his decision to change parties. Walter Lavitola, a former newspaper editor and the alleged intermediary, also faces trial on corruption charges. He was reported to have told the closed-door hearing on Wednesday that he had only paid back money that the former senator had lent to their media venture.