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ROME – Italy’s embattled Silvio Berlusconi, ousted from parliament and stripped of legal protection this week, risks arrest and a fresh trial after a court yesterday accused him of corrupting witnesses in a sex case. Judges in a Milan court said Berlusconi “gave, and still gives, money” to call girls to provide false testimony in his favour, one of whom included the then-underage dancer nicknamed “Ruby the Heart Stealer”.
The girls “received money and other benefits” from Berlusconi and his lawyers “both before and after providing false testimony”, the court said.
The accusations against the billionaire are likely to be enough to warrant a new trial against him -and for the first time in his political life, the former senator risks ending up in handcuffs.
A conviction for tax fraud earlier this year saw Berlusconi stripped of his seat on Wednesday – and of his parliamentary protection from the law.
The latest accusations revolve around monthly sums paid to girls, who testified that Berlusconi’s parties were no more than innocent dinners.
The 77-year-old has admitted to paying the girls US$3 400 a month for the past three years – allegedly to compensate them for being caught up in a trial against him which has damaged their reputations.
The payments “by the accused, to people who were to testify in a trial against him… is not an anomaly but an illegal act, an alteration of the evidence,” the court document said.
Among the young girls recruited for the erotic parties was Ruby, a then 17-year-old Moroccan-born exotic dancer whose real name is Karima El-Mahroug.
Berlusconi was sentenced in a previous trial to seven years in jail for paying for sex with Ruby and abusing his prime ministerial powers to favour her. – AFP.
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