Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex with teen belly dancer Karima "Ruby" el-Mahroug on thirteen occasions last year, prosecutors will tell next month's trial, when the Italian premier will stand accused of paying for sex with a minor and abuse of office.
As the probe into the "Rubygate" affair ended, investigating magistrates produced an eight-page report stating that Mr Berlusconi's illegal encounters with the young Moroccan occurred between 14 February and 2 May last year, while she was still seventeen. It adds that his associates may have been grooming her for prostitution the previous year. It was at this time that the television newsreader Emilio Fede, a close friend of the Prime Minister, first met Ruby at a beauty contest at Taormina, Sicily.
The prosecutors recommend that three other associates of Mr. Berlusconi, also investigated as part of the Rubygate affair– the impresario Lele Mora, Mr. Fede, and Mr. Berlusconi's former dental hygienist Nicole Minetti– stand trial for procuring prostitutes. If the judge issues indictments, these will result in a separate trial from Mr Berlusconi's fast-track hearing, due to begin in Milan on 6 April. The Premier is also accused of abuse of office, after allegedly lying to police in order to secure Ms. el-Mahroug's release after she was held by police last year.
Paying minors for sex carries a jail term of up to three years. Abuse of office can carry a twelve-year sentence. Mr. Berlusconi and his associates deny all charges. Ms. el-Mahroug also denies having sex with the Prime Minister. Investigators said yesterday that a total of 32 other young women prostituted themselves regularly at Mr. Berlusconi's Arcore mansion near Milan.
In their latest report prosecutors also appear to have solved the "bunga-bunga" mystery. The words describe the three-phase sequence of Berlusconi's adult parties. "The first phase consisted of a dinner; the second was the 'bunga bunga' phase, which took place in a room used as a discotheque, where the participants appeared in masks, performing striptease and erotic dances, and being touched on their intimate parts by Mr Berlusconi," they say. In the third phase, "one or more young women spend the night with Berlusconi for payments above those received by the other participants".
In a rare interview with the opposition La Repubblica newspaper yesterday, Mr. Berlusconi ridiculed the charges. "I'm 75 years old and, although I'm naughty, 33 girls in two months seems a bit much even for a thirty-year-old," he said. He added that he wanted to "publicly defend" the young women who "risk spending the rest of their lives with an indelible stain" on their characters. "And yet their only fault was to take part in dinners with the Prime Minister at which there were three musicians and six waiters." He repeated his claim that he has had a steady girlfriend for over a year, who "would have clawed my eyes out" had he been involved in the sleazy events described by prosecutors.
Mr. Berlusconi also faces the resumption of three other trials for tax and corruption offences.
The charges:
* Berlusconi faces trial on 6 April in Milan charged with paying for sex with an underage prostitute.
* He is also accused of attempting to cover up the alleged crime by abusing his position, for which he could face a twelve-year prison sentence.
* Three of his associates could also be indicted for procuring prostitutes for the Italian Prime Minister (meaning Berlusconi) could be drawn into a separate trial.
16 March 2011
Who isn't too old for that?
That would be the claim that Silvio Berlusconi (the Prime Minister of Italy) paid to have sex with thirty-three different women in two months, according to Michael Day in The Independent:

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