Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Italian former premier Silvio Berlusconi Luca Bruno/AP/Press Association Images

Verdict near in 'bunga bunga' Berlusconi sex trial

The hearing is one of the last in a trial that began two years ago and revolves around alleged raunchy ‘bunga bunga’ parties’.

ITALIAN PROSECUTORS PRESENT their final arguments today at the close of Silvio Berlusconi’s trial for having sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of office in a legal storm that is shaking the government.

The hearing is one of the last in a trial that began two years ago and relates to alleged crimes in 2010 when Berlusconi was still prime minister and revolves around alleged raunchy “bunga bunga” parties at his luxury residence outside Milan.

Prosecutor Ilda Boccassini said in a live feed from the courtroom broadcast by news channel Sky TG 2:

The women invited to the then prime minister’s private residence were part of a prostitution system set up for the personal sexual satisfaction of the defendant Silvio Berlusconi.

Prosecutors are expected to request a sentence of at least five years in prison for the flamboyant billionaire tycoon, who was not present for the hearing, Italian media reported.

A verdict could come later this month.

Accusations

Berlusconi is accused of paying for sex on several occasions with Moroccan-born Karima El-Mahroug, a then 17-year-old exotic dancer nicknamed as “Ruby the Heart Stealer”.

Boccassini said El-Mahroug, a teenage runaway who was initially spotted by a Berlusconi associate at a beauty contest in Sicily when she was 16, had become the prime minister’s “favourite”.

It is also alleged that Berlusconi called a police station to pressure for her release from custody when she was arrested for petty theft. According to prosecutors, he did so because he was fearful she could reveal their liaison.

Berlusconi, 76, denies all charges and says the trial is only the latest example of “judicial persecution” by left-wing prosecutors in Milan.

The legal woes are straining relations within Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s grand coalition government in which Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party is a crucial coalition partner.

Moderate leftist Letta reacted angrily over the weekend when Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano attended a rally against the judiciary in which Berlusconi also took part on Saturday.

Berlusconi has been under investigation or on trial since entering politics in the 1990s after a successful career in construction and media.

Berlusconi says the gatherings at his home were elegant dinner parties followed by “burlesque contests” in a discotheque in the basement.

Prosecutors and some of the attendees say the gatherings were hardcore strip shows and were followed by sex for money with some of the girls.

They referred to the parties as “bunga bunga”.

El-Mahroug has repeatedly denied sleeping with Berlusconi and complains she was not asked to testify by either the prosecution or the defence.

But she boasted of their liaison to friends and telephone intercepts leaked in Italian media appear to show she had wanted a pay-off from him.

Three of Berlusconi’s friends – a showbusiness agent, a former network anchor and a former regional assemblywoman – are on trial on pimping charges in a separate trial linked to the case.

- © AFP, 2013

Read: Thousands attend rally for Berlusconi – despite his conviction for tax fraud>

Author
View 14 comments
Close
14 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Russell
    Favourite Michael Russell
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:57 PM

    Forgive my ignorance of science & biology , but genuine question: just because earth life forms produce methane…. Does it necessarily mean alien life forms do? Can we base the fundamentals of all possible life on what we have seen on earth? (Earth is a very small sample to use in the context of the universe!)

    93
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:09 PM

    I don’t care what they do or don’t find tbh. They continuously blow my mind in what they achieve. They make me feel proud of men.

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Pepper
    Favourite John Pepper
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:36 PM

    A tad sexist don’t you think?

    14
    See 8 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:57 PM

    No. I don’t think it’s sexist really as I’ve had an interest in space exploration for 30 years and I know the stories and names of many people involved from reading about it for years and they’re all men.

    I see your point though.

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Kavanagh
    Favourite Mary Kavanagh
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 12:10 AM

    All men? Niall? Here’s a link for you:
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_astronauts
    Valentina Tereschkova? (Apologies for the spelling!)
    And the last several times I saw a launch there were a number of women in the control room, none of whom were handing round coffee or acting as secretaries!

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 12:23 AM

    I’m talking historically Mary. From landing on the moon to designing the rockets and shuttles – all the way back to the Wright sisters in fact :)

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pádraig O'hEidhin
    Favourite Pádraig O'hEidhin
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 7:23 AM

    Mary, a little lady like you would be best placed catering to your husbands needs, rather than commenting on mens issues like this.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute AggressiveSecularist
    Favourite AggressiveSecularist
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 9:08 AM

    @Michael

    No it doesn’t. However, life as it is on earth is the only kind we have to go on. If you want to search for another kind of life you’ll first have to come up with a hypothesis of what form it would take and then what indicators that life would produce. Have fun with that!

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Pepper
    Favourite John Pepper
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 11:58 AM

    No point arguing in troll’s Mary

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Kavanagh
    Favourite Mary Kavanagh
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 12:00 PM

    Wouldn’t waste my breath on ‘em.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Pepper
    Favourite John Pepper
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 12:16 PM

    Lol historically speaking that is.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute AggressiveSecularist
    Favourite AggressiveSecularist
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:28 PM

    Good. Time to have a look at Europa and Titan!

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Graham Kavanagh
    Favourite Graham Kavanagh
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:53 PM

    The Martians are underground here waiting. Do you guys not watch good quality cinema???

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:11 PM

    Some great documentaries on YouTube bout that but you’ve probably seen them. On a proxy iPhone right now so I can’t link them. Mind blowing stuff.

    11
    See 9 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chopstix
    Favourite Chopstix
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:15 PM

    Some good documentaries about the structures and pyramids on mars in the area known as cydonia

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jamie McCormack
    Favourite Jamie McCormack
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:23 PM

    And the face looking at you from Cydonia.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chopstix
    Favourite Chopstix
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:29 PM

    Richard C Hoagland is the leading investigator on the face , pyramids mars in general dozens of interviews n lectures out there for those who find the topic interesting

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Harlowe
    Favourite Brendan Harlowe
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:57 PM

    Yeah , the face disappeared on higher resolution images! Just a mountain after all!

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chopstix
    Favourite Chopstix
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 12:12 AM

    Killjoy ….

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Graham Kavanagh
    Favourite Graham Kavanagh
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 2:51 AM

    Yeah they took the picture with the mons Olympus camera…

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute AggressiveSecularist
    Favourite AggressiveSecularist
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 9:11 AM

    OMFG, we’ve regressed to the face on mars dumb-arsery.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute AggressiveSecularist
    Favourite AggressiveSecularist
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 9:18 AM

    you need to watch this…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T_jwq9ph8k

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute AggressiveSecularist
    Favourite AggressiveSecularist
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 9:20 AM
    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jack Mc Connoron
    Favourite Jack Mc Connoron
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:17 PM

    Bet the martians are saying the exact same thing about earth!

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ronan Stokes
    Favourite Ronan Stokes
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:23 PM

    No, they are saying “that rover you bought on ebay is outside Ted”.

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jamie McCormack
    Favourite Jamie McCormack
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:03 PM

    Yes but the real question is whether life existed on Mars in the past, not now. If it can be shown that life existed there a long time ago, it opens questions about the origin of life on this planet.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chopstix
    Favourite Chopstix
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:32 PM

    I doubt the powers that be would tell us if they found proof of life

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jamie McCormack
    Favourite Jamie McCormack
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 12:23 AM

    That’s the problem, they treat us like mushrooms.. keep us in the dark and feed us shite.

    11
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Burch Barlow
    Favourite Burch Barlow
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 8:04 AM

    And fluoride!!!!

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jason Culligan
    Favourite Jason Culligan
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 10:34 AM

    They’ve already come to the conclusion that it is possible Mars held life at one point. The problem is finding the concrete evidence is quite hard to achieve, especially when your only way of searching for the evidence is by firing probes in the direction of Mars and hoping they work if they get there.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Barry Aston
    Favourite Barry Aston
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:15 PM

    Really! Bollix.

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean Mac Gabhann
    Favourite Sean Mac Gabhann
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:51 PM

    No point going back to paddy power then.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Steve501
    Favourite Steve501
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:28 PM

    Interesting. Ur I bet there is life in a galaxy far far away.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergal Reid
    Favourite Fergal Reid
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:13 PM

    With such a thin atmosphere, it’s no wonder that no methane was found. Any life that ever existed would’ve had to have come into being way back when Mars had an active core and magnetic field. Those days are long past, billions of years gone.

    Titan’s our best bet in this solar system.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ronan Stokes
    Favourite Ronan Stokes
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:32 PM

    Europa.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mark O Flaherty
    Favourite Mark O Flaherty
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 3:32 AM

    Martians don’t fart…that’s what’s going on. A Dutch oven is impossible for them…..women of earth would love a Martian man

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John king
    Favourite John king
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:05 PM

    Live on Mars already migrated long ago to a place we call China today ;-.) Not too long now and those aliens (we call them Chinese) soon will take over the world…

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergal Reid
    Favourite Fergal Reid
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:11 PM

    What?

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen McMahon
    Favourite Stephen McMahon
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:47 PM

    That’s not true, the Chinese are a great bunch of lads!

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
    Favourite Jazz O'Gorman
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 10:17 PM

    Obviously.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Virginia Black
    Favourite Virginia Black
    Report
    Sep 20th 2013, 12:20 AM

    This is interesting. It’ll be a while still before it reaches Mount Sharp to calculate when life may have been possible. I remember reading about early astronomers who thought they saw canals on Mars’ surface but they were actually just scratches on their lenses they were looking at.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jamie McCormack
    Favourite Jamie McCormack
    Report
    Sep 19th 2013, 11:26 PM

    Mars looks at unhappy, maybe doesn’t like his photo being taken without permission..

    3
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      News in 60 seconds