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THE EXOTIC DANCER at the centre of a sex trial against Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi arrived to testify for the first time in court on Monday but a news report said the billionaire’s lawyers may try to suspend the proceedings until after elections.
Moroccan-born Karima El-Mahroug – better known by her nickname as “Ruby the Heart Stealer” – failed to appear the first time she was called to testify and was in Mexico when she was called a second time.
The ANSA news agency said Berlusconi’s lawyers would ask for the entire trial to be suspended until after February elections, as the tycoon bids for a fourth term as prime minister.
The suspension request would concern two other legal proceedings against Berlusconi – a trial for illegally leaking a telephone wiretap and his appeal against a conviction for tax fraud.
Prosecutors have accused the defence of deliberately trying to draw out the sex trial to avoid a verdict before the general election.
Berlusconi has launched his sixth election bid in two decades in politics.
He stands accused of having sex for money with El-Mahroug on several occasions in 2010 when he was still prime minister and she was just 17.
The age of consent in Italy is only 14, but sex with a prostitute who is under 18 years of age is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.
Berlusconi is also accused of abusing his official powers by putting pressure on police to release El-Mahroug from custody when she was arrested for petty theft – a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 12 years.
His defence says Berlusconi was convinced El-Mahroug was a niece of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident.
The 76-year-old, who is also appealing a one-year prison sentence for tax fraud handed out last year, is unlikely ever to see the inside of a prison cell however since sentencing guidelines in Italy are very lenient for over-70s.
Berlusconi denies having sex with El-Mahroug, saying that he gave her money so that she could set up a beauty parlour and avoid having to prostitute herself.
‘Elegant dinner parties’
“I never had an intimate relationship of any kind with her,” he said in October in his second appearance at the trial which began in April 2011.
“I was sure she was 24, as she herself said,” Berlusconi said.
He said the soirees were “burlesque contests” and “elegant dinner parties.”
According to transcripts of her questioning by investigators leaked in the Italian press, El-Mahroug said Berlusconi enjoyed lap dances from naked girls at parties that he called “Bunga Bunga” – a term that has since become notorious.
El-Mahroug has also denied a liaison with Berlusconi but was recorded in a leaked telephone wiretap telling a friend that he had said to her: “Ruby I’ll give you anything you want, I’ll turn you into gold, just hide everything.”
El-Mahroug is a witness for the defence and is unlikely to give incriminating testimony against Berlusconi, but her comments are eagerly awaited and could help to determine when the trial will end.
Summings up by the prosecution and the defence in the Milan courtroom are expected on January 28 and February 4 but this timetable could change.
Italians take to the polls on February 24-25 and Berlusconi has boosted his ratings since taking to the airwaves in his election campaign.
A conviction just before the elections could put an end to his long political career.
El-Mahroug ran away from her immigrant family in Sicily when she was just 14.
According to some reports she was spotted by one of Berlusconi’s ageing cronies at a beauty contest and was called to entertain the premier.
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Bejases.. That lad would get up on a clipped hedge.
fair play to him. she’s fine.
Do we have to put up with comments of such a consistently crude and uneducated nature. There is no doubt that the standard of so many discussions is so regularly somewhere in the gutter whether the subject be politics or fashion.
Go watch an episode of Fraiser will ya and lighten up
Listen here collins you trolling saddo.
Stalking is a crime and you seem to excel in the art of stalking.
You are jumping in and spreading your sad pathetic bile at every opportunity while hiding behind a false identity.
Now I suggest you go and get some much needed help as soon as possable before someone actually gets you arrested.
Again I say “Go away you sad troll”
Michael is frustrated a pensioner is getting it more than him.
Careful Mike i called someone cyberstalking me a troll and the comment was pulled pretty quickly!!!As ive said before if they hide behind an avatar and a fake name they arent worth noticing.Judge a man by the strength of his convictions.If they are strong there is no issue with a real name and photo
Michael as I said yesterday and the day before and I will continue to say what you say means nothing because when you use a derogatory word to describe people with mental or physical handicaps and your not man enough to apologise for doing so, anything you say has no creedence.
I think Michael is the only educated person in Ireland.
It seems to be his way of attacking people by calling them uneducated.
It must be wonderful to have such a high opinion of ones self Michael.
I have requested a lend of his “big words book” but I never got a response.
Ruby can have my heart anytime
Jaysus, you can see why he did it! I can’t imagine many would turn down a piece of that pie!
I bet she was worth every penny
She was seventeen….what is wrong with you? any daughters? Sisters? Im sure youd be delighted if a politician in his sixties approached a teenager close to for paid sex.
EP,
The age of consent is 14 in Italy. Nanny’s can do nought to change another country or its laws. Freedom and liberalization is a democratic fact in most other European countries (unlike catholic Ireland where people are jailed for small things like talking to someone). No wonder Irish society is polarized. Nobody trusts no one.
Surely the Italian people are entitled to know of this mans guilt or innocence in advance of a General Election and that his appeal for the trial to be delayed until after such an event is compromising the very essence of a Democracy.
The age of consent in Italy is only 14? Very dodgy.
Nanny state mentality?
@Mark: Protect vulnerable minors perhaps?
Kitty,
The age of consent in Italy is 14. Freedom gives people their choice – suppression because of a conservative minority of feminists impedes responsibility. You cannot control people based upon a nanny state mindset. We already have enough suppression in catholic nanny state Ireland. Perhaps that’s why men and women are becoming more polarized in Ireland. Perhaps that’s also the reason more Irish guys are dating females from abroad?
Michael, it’s not your journal, you can’t control it’s content , give Silvio a call if you needs some mafioso tips on corruption and control
He is as innocent as a politician in any country we would want to keep an eye on our lads .: lads probably not the best word :
Royish michael j I bet you those boys went to night school shouldn’t be allowed to comment during the day what what
Ireland has the highest age of consent among European countries (in most countries it’s 14). The catholic nanny state apparently comprised of conservative feminists who demand “tougher” laws against men for certain crimes. I think we need freedom in Ireland to choose the age of consent by a referendum instead of it being imposed by non-elected interest groups.
I don’t think he is trying to be Prime Minister for a 4th time. His electoral pact , to the best of my knowledge , specifically bars him from being PM.
sounds like people are congratulating a man in his sixties for having paid for sex with a seventeen year old?? Not something to be proud of I would have thought.
EP,
The age of consent is 14 in Italy. Also innocent until proven guilty.
Every country has different laws. Catholic Ireland can be summed up as the “strictest” in most European countries.
Bunga bunga.
For a bit of amusement, just imagine Enda Kenny in the same situation?
Wouldn’t Porn Star witness be a more appropriate headline?
You are right michael j we were coddled rightly
What a “divine Comedy”,
@mark dalt, did u actually read the article? This is nothing to do w nanny state mentality… Or sexual liberalisation… Strikes me as more of a vulnerable, out of home teenager being groomed and paid for sex by a member of government who should, quite frankly, have known better..surely it should have been his duty to protect young people in situations such as hers,not exploit for them, or bribe legal officials to keep her out of prison so he could continue to have sex with her on a regular basis..
No court could convict him
have your say