Ex-PM Berlusconi accused of bribing witness in underage sex case
TURIN, Italy: A prosecutor asked a court in the northern city of Turin on Friday to charge four-times prime minister Silvio Berlusconi with bribing a witness when he was being tried for paying for sex with a minor.
The case is one of seven that form part of the same issue being handled by as many different courts.
In the cases, prosecutors allege Berlusconi doled out 10 million euros (US$12 million) to corrupt several witnesses at his trial in 2013, in which he was accused of having sex with 17-year-old Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, better known in Italy by her stage name, Ruby the Heartstealer.
Prosecutors in Turin said Berlusconi had paid a former nurse and model, Roberta Bonasia, to give false testimony in the trial.
Bonasia is one of more than a dozen women who testified about Berlusconi’s so-called ‘Bunga Bunga’ sex parties at his plush residence near Milan, which Berlusconi says were nothing more than elegant dinner parties.
The alleged payments to various witnesses are being handled in different courts, according to the location of the banks that received the money.
El Mahroug received 7 million euros, prosecutors say.
Berlusconi was originally found guilty of paying to have sex with a minor and sentenced to seven years in jail, but the verdict was overturned in 2014 by an appeals court, which ruled that there was no proof he had known Mahroug’s age.
In this case, both Berlusconi and Bonasia, whom prosecutors also want to put on trial, deny any wrongdoing. — Reuters