Death of model investigated in Italy

ROME — Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the possible poisoning death of a Moroccan model who was a key witness in the trial against former Premier Silvio Berlusconi over his infamous “bunga bunga” parties.

Imane Fadil, 34, died March 1 at a Milan-area hospital, where she had been treated since Jan. 29 for exhibiting “symptoms of poisoning,” Milan prosecutor Francesco Greco said, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

Fadil had told reporters in 2012 that she feared for her safety after telling prosecutors investigating possible witness tampering in the case that she was offered money in exchange for her silence about what went on at Berlusconi’s parties.

Berlusconi was initially convicted of charges related to paying for sex with an underage woman at the parties, and using his influence to cover it up. He ultimately was acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Late last year, lawyers for one of Berlusconi’s co-defendants in the witness-tampering trial began negotiations to settle the women’s claims, ANSA reported at the time. But by January, the Milan court had thrown out their claims altogether. Two weeks later, Fadil was hospitalized.

News reports said that before Fadil lost consciousness, she told her lawyer and family that she feared she had been poisoned.

In a statement reported by ANSA, Humanitas hospital in Rozzano said that Fadil’s medical charts were seized by the authorities as soon as she died. The hospital said it provided the results of her toxicological exams to prosecutors when they were completed March 6.

The Pavia lab that conducted the toxicology tests said in a statement Saturday that it had been asked by the hospital to analyze metals in Fadil’s blood, but stressed that the lab doesn’t measure radioactivity.