The world’s media are ready and 190 witnesses have been called, among them a foreign minister, a Hollywood star, a footballing legend and 33 alleged prostitutes. Italy is holding its breath this week for the start of the most sensational trial in its history — one that could see Silvio Berlusconi jailed for 15 years.
The 74-year-old prime minister stands accused of paying to have sex with Karima El Mahroug, a Moroccan runaway known as Ruby the Heart Stealer, when she was 17, a year below the minimum legal age for prostitution in Italy. He will also be tried for abuse of office after allegedly pressuring police to release her from custody when she was arrested for theft, in a bid to cover up his relationship with her.
Berlusconi denies the charges, but prosecutors have used cellphone traces and wiretaps to show that during 2010 Mahroug slept at his mansion outside Milan on 15 occasions, swapping phone calls with him on a daily basis. Between February and May last year, prosecutors allege, the two had sex 13 times.
Ruby, who took her name from a Mexican soap opera, will take centre stage in court as a witness for both the prosecution and the defence. Lawyers seeking to convict Berlusconi will recall that she once told investigators “it was not difficult for me to understand that he was proposing to have sex with me”, as she described the now notorious “bunga bunga” parties she attended at Berlusconi’s mansion.
The prime minister’s lawyers will seek to paint Ruby as a fantasist, calling the actor George Clooney as a witness to dispute whether, as she claims, he ever sat across from her at one of Berlusconi’s dinners. In its quest to convince the three presiding judges that she has trouble with the truth, however, the defence team will also have to persuade the court that she was in fact being honest when she said that she never slept with Berlusconi and that he believed she was 24.
Prosecutors lifted the lid on a harem of women who were handed flats, cars and envelopes of cash in return for showing up at Berlusconi’s parties dressed as police officers, nurses, football players and Father Christmas. It is alleged that the women would strip off to win a chance of spending a night alone with Berlusconi.
The prime minister’s love of women and mania for cleanliness was recounted by one guest, Iris Berardi, to a friend. “Iris told me the girls would approach Berlusconi, who would touch them— but the prime minister sometimes sent them off to wash themselves because they smelt bad,” she told investigators. Another female guest was wiretapped claiming: “There were 20-year-old girls there who were worn out, dead.” After taking and passing an Aids test, another commented: “When someone goes to bed with 80 women you never know.”
‘Inferiority complex’
Mahroug found her way into Berlusconi’s circle after plunging into the Milan club scene last year following years in and out of care after running away from her poor, Moroccan immigrant parents in Sicily. Traced by investigators, her mother recalled how Ruby suffered from an inferiority complex, insisting that “her family was rich and her father owned shops”. Ruby has claimed she was raped by two uncles and fled from a father who threw boiling oil over her.
Her flatmate in Milan, Brazilian Michelle Conceição Oliveira (32) recalls another Ruby. “She confided she was working as a prostitute, and I believe she was earning from €500 to over €1 000 a night,” said Oliveira, who denies claims she herself has worked as a prostitute.
When Ruby was arrested in May on suspicion of stealing from a roommate, Oliveira tipped off Berlusconi, prompting the prime minister to hurriedly phone Milan police. After allegedly telling officers his party guest could be the granddaughter of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, she was released.
Ruby has already given three versions, telling magistrates last year that Berlusconi told her to pretend to be Mubarak’s granddaughter; then telling Berlusconi’s lawyers she invented the story and fooled Berlusconi into believing it; then telling a TV interviewer she learned of the Mubarak angle from newspapers.
Touring the island of Lampedusa last week, Berlusconi seemed unworried, joking with a local that pollsters had asked women if they would have sex with him. “30% said ‘yes’,” he said, “while 70% replied ‘What, again?'” – guardian.co.uk