Berlusconi found guilty in under-age sex case
Former premier facing seven years in prison pending appeal
FORMER Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been convicted of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute during “bunga bunga” parties at his villa and then using his influence to try to cover it up.
Berlusconi, 76, was sentenced to seven years in prison and barred from public office for life. The ban on holding office could mean the end of Berlusconi’s two-decade political career. However, there are two more levels of appeal before the sentence would become final.
The former premier holds no official post in the current Italian government, but remains influential in the uneasy cross-party coalition that emerged after inconclusive February elections.
Both he and the Moroccan woman at the centre of the scandal have denied ever having sex.
Berlusconi’s lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, immediately announced an appeal and said the sentence was as expected as it was unjust.The charges against the billionaire media mogul stem from the parties in 2010 at his mansion near Milan, where he wined and dined beautiful young women while he was premier. He says the dinner parties were elegant soirees; prosecutors say they were sex-fuelled parties that women were paid to attend.
Neither Berlusconi nor the woman at the centre of the case, Karima el Mahroug, better known by her nickname Ruby the Heart Stealer, have given evidence in the trial. Ms El Mahroug was called by the defence but failed to show on a couple of occasions, delaying the trial. Berlusconi’s team even- tually dropped her from the witness list.
She did give evidence in the separate trial of three Berlusconi aides charged with procuring prostitutes for the parties. The three female judges deliberated for more than seven hours. Their written explanations will be published in the next few weeks.
Ms El Mahroug, now20, said in the earlier trial she attended about halfa-dozen parties at Berlusconi’s villa, and that after each, Berlusconi handed her an envelope with up to €3000 (£2560). She said she later received €30,000 cash from the thenpremier paid through an intermediary – money she told Berlusconi she wanted to use to open a beauty salon, despite having no formal training.
She was 17 at the time of the alleged encounters but passed herself off as being 24. She also claimed she was related to then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Berlusconi’s lawyers argued he – thinking she was Mubarak’s niece – called police after she was detained in a bid to avoid a diplomatic incident.
Ms El Mahroug denied Berlusconi had ever given her €5 million. She said she told acquaintances and even her father she was going to receive such a large sum “as a boast,” but it was a lie to make her seem more important.
The verdict comes on the heels of Berlusconi’s tax-fraud conviction, which along with a four-year prison sentence and five-year ban on public office have been upheld on a first appeal.
The tax-fraud case is heading to Italy’s highest court for a final appeal after Berlusconi’s defence failed to derail it last week at the constitutional court.
Berlusconi, who has been tried numerous times relating to his business dealings, has been convicted in other cases at the trial level. But those convictions have always either been overturned on appeal or the statute of limitations ran out before Italy’s high court could have its say.