Alaskan senator trial nears end

Mr Stevens has been in the US Senate since 1968

The closing arguments have been heard in the US federal corruption trial of Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens.

Mr Stevens, who is the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, is accused of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about gifts from an oil firm.

Prosecutors have described Mr Stevens's explanation of the gifts as "nonsense".

Mr Stevens's defence lawyer accused prosecutors of twisting the facts to make the senator look bad. The jury begins its deliberations on Wednesday.

Mr Stevens is accused of failing to disclose $250,000 (£135,000) of work done on his house free of charge by employees of the Veco oil company that normally builds pipelines and processing equipment.

Bill Allen, Veco's founder, pleaded guilty to bribery charges in May 2007.

In his testimony, Mr Stevens said he had never asked for the work to be done, or for the company to give him the gifts, which included a massage chair, rope lighting, furniture, a gas grill and a fully stocked tool chest.

He said he repeatedly called on Mr Allen, who was a friend of his, to remove them, and insisted that some of the gifts, like the massage chair, were loans.

'Sick thoughts'

Prosecutor Joseph Bottini, in his closing argument, poured scorn on Mr Stevens's testimony.

"Does anybody really believe that the defendant really can't get Bill Allen to stop giving him all this free stuff?" he asked.

"Does anyone really believe he thought that [massage] chair was a loan? It's been in his house for seven years."

He added: "What were the terms of this loan? Zero percent interest for 84 months? Simply saying, 'We're going to call this a loan and I don't have to report it,' is nonsense."

Mr Stevens's defence lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, told jurors that Mr Stevens had thought that the money he had paid Veco for the work had been sufficient to cover the costs, and that letters sent by Mr Stevens proved that he had asked to be billed for the renovations.

Prosecutors asserted that Mr Stevens had written the letters to cover himself.

Mr Sullivan said that his client would have to have been "some mastermind of conspiracy" to write the letters specially as a cover.

"That's sick thoughts. That's not real life," he added.

Mr Stevens's Senate seat is up for grabs in November's election and polls suggest he is facing a tough battle against his Democratic challenger, Mark Begich, if he is to secure an eighth term.

The senator has continued to campaign since he was indicted in July.