Quote:24 June 2013 Last updated at 09:15

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Italy ex-PM Berlusconi sex trial's verdict expected

The former Italian prime minister denies the allegations against him

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• Profile: Silvio Berlusconi
  
• Profile: Karima El Mahroug
  
• Q&A: Silvio Berlusconi on trial
  

An Italian court is expected to rule whether ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex with an underage prostitute and abused his office as prime minister.
Prosecutors at the trial in Milan are demanding a six-year sentence and a lifetime ban from public office.
The 76-year-old media tycoon denies all the allegations.
Mr Berlusconi, who is already embroiled in several court cases, was given a four-year sentence for tax fraud in October 2012.
Neither Karima El-Mahroug nor Mr Berlusconi are expected in court for the verdict
He lost an appeal to overturn the conviction last week.
A court convened in Milan on Monday morning, and was expected to deliver its verdict.
The judgement could have major political repercussions for Italy, analysts say.
They say a guilty ruling could weaken current Prime Minister Enrico Letta's coalition government, which depends on the support of Mr Berlusconi's centre-right party, People of Freedom (PdL).
'Favour to Mubarak'The prosecution in Milan says that women invited to Mr Berlusconi's private residence for so-called "bunga-bunga" party evenings were part of a prostitution system set up for his personal sexual satisfaction.
The allegations focus specifically on his relationship with Moroccan girl Karima El Mahroug, known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer", whom he is accused of paying for sex in 2010. She was 17 at the time.
Both she and Mr Berlusconi have denied the allegations.
Ms El Mahroug says she did receive 7,000 euros (£5,900), but it was as a gift after a party.
She also told a separate trial last month that she had lied to investigators when she said she had bathed naked during parties held at the former prime minister's villa at Arcore, north-east of Milan.
Continue reading the main story

Silvio Berlusconi's trials

• Accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute: Verdict due
  
• Convicted and sentenced to a year in jail for arranging leak of police wiretap. Remains free while appeals process under way.
  
• Accused of tax fraud over deals his firm Mediaset made to purchase TV rights to US films: Convicted in October 2012; Sentence upheld by appeals court in May
  
• Two other corruption cases involving tax evasion and bribery of a British lawyer: Expired under statute of limitations
  

However, Prosecutor Ilda Boccassini told the Berlusconi trial during closing arguments last month that the young woman had lied when she denied having had sex with the former prime minister.
She said Ms Mahroug had received more than 4.5m euros (£3.8m) from Mr Berlusconi between October and December 2010.
Mr Berlusconi is also charged with abusing his power of office after calling a police station to press for the release of Ms Mahroug from custody when she was arrested in Milan in a separate petty theft case.
He has acknowledged the phone-call but says it was made as a favour to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose granddaughter he believed Ms Mahroug to be.
He told a TV programme about the "bunga-bunga" broadcast on one of his Mediaset channels that he had "absolutely never had intercourse with Ruby".
Prosecutors, whom Mr Berlusconi accuses of waging a politicised campaign against him, want him to serve a one-year jail term on the charge of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and five years for abuse of office.

David Guyatt Wrote:Buffoon's verdict due today.

Will he be found guilty or innocent?

Will he be found to have paid for having sex with an underage prostitute as well as the verdict?

Quote:
The former Italian prime minister denies the allegations against him

Quote:She said Ms Mahroug had received more than 4.5m euros (£3.8m) from Mr Berlusconi between October and December 2010.

No wonder she is smiling...because it wouldn't be Berlusconi or his freinds providing any satisfaction on any other level.

Quote:Silvio Berlusconi's trials

• Accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute: Verdict due
  
• Convicted and sentenced to a year in jail for arranging leak of police wiretap. Remains free while appeals process under way.
  
• Accused of tax fraud over deals his firm Mediaset made to purchase TV rights to US films: Convicted in October 2012; Sentence upheld by appeals court in May
  
• Two other corruption cases involving tax evasion and bribery of a British lawyer: Expired under statute of limitations
  

Quote:He has acknowledged the phone-call but says it was made as a favour to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose granddaughter he believed Ms Mahroug to be.

Quote:
He told a TV programme about the "bunga-bunga" broadcast on one of his Mediaset channels that he had "absolutely never had intercourse with Ruby".

Quote:

Bunga Bunga Trial: Silvio Berlusconi Guilty

Sky News 29 minutes ago

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• View PhotoBunga Bunga Trial: Silvio Berlusconi Guilty
  

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been found guilty of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.
The 76-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from holding public office by a panel of three judges in Milan.
He previously denied having sex with Karima El Mahroug, also known as Ruby the Heart Stealer, after what prosecutors claimed were erotic "bunga bunga" parties at his Milan mansion in 2010.
His defence claimed he believed the dancer, who was 17 at the time, was the niece of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident.
Berlusconi was also found guilty of abuse of office by arranging to have Miss El Mahroug, now 19, released from police custody when she was arrested on suspicion of theft.
His lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, immediately announced an appeal, describing the sentence as "beyond reality" and "completely illogical".
"The judges even went beyond the prosecutors' request (for a six-year sentence)," he added.
Berlusconi, who was not in court for the verdict, has two levels of appeal and cannot be jailed until that process has been exhausted. Under the Italian justice system, that could take several years.
However, the verdict is likely to put further pressure on the current Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, whose fragile coalition government is supported by Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.
Professor Christopher Duggan, an expert on Italian history and politics at the University of Reading, said the outlook for Mr Letta's government "must now be bleak".
He said: "Berlusconi has claimed credit both for Giorgio Napolitano being re-elected as president and for burying the hatchet with the left, giving Italy a workable coalition.
"Undoubtedly, though, he and his millions of followers have been hoping there will be something of a quid pro quo for this: namely that the political persecution, as they see it, of Berlusconi by the judiciary will stop.
"This sentence will leave them dismayed and extremely angry."
Last October, Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud connected to his television channels.
The case is now heading to Italy's highest court for a final appeal, after his defence team failed to have the verdict overturned at the constitutional court.

Quote:Ex-showgirl convicted of procuring women for Berlusconi parties

Former councillor and showgirl Nicole Minetti among three convicted for roles in 'bunga bunga' soirées at Berlusconi villa

Lizzy Davies in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 July 2013 18.35 BST

Nicole Minetti: sentenced to five years in prison. Photograph: Paolo Bona/Reuters

An Anglo-Italian former regional councillor and erstwhile showgirl was among three people convicted on Friday of procuring prostitutes for "bunga bunga" parties at the villa of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Nicole Minetti, a qualified dental hygienist who treated the then-premier when he was attacked in 2009 by a man wielding a model of Milan cathedral, was ordered by a judge in the northern city to spend five years behind bars and face a five-year ban on public office for her role in the soirées at Berlusconi's villa in Arcore.

Two men Lele Mora, a former talent scout, and Emilo Fede, who was a newsreader on the media mogul's television channels were also convicted of bringing young women to the parties for paid-for sex with Berlusconi.

They were ordered to serve prison sentences of seven years each, and banned for life from public office.

All three had denied wrongdoing. Lawyers for Minetti told the Ansa news agency she was "stupefied by the excessive sentence", which is likely to be suspended pending appeal.

Lawyers for Mora and Fede immediately said they would appeal.

The verdict comes almost a month after Berlusconi was found guilty by a Milan court of paying for sex with one of the women brought to Arcore, a Moroccan dancer named Karima el-Mahroug who was 17 at the time and denies ever having sex with Berlusconi. The three-times prime minister was also convicted of abusing his office to cover up the alleged liaison.

He denies the charges and the sentence seven years in jail and a lifetime ban on holding public office is suspended pending appeal.

But the judges in the parallel case on Friday opened a potentially troublesome new chapter for the 76-year-old, asking prosecutors to investigate whether there might be further charges to bring against him and others in relation to evidence given during the trial dubbed "Ruby part two" by the Italian media.

In their summing up in May, prosecutors in that trial told the court the three accused had helped to organise "orgies" at the villa and acted like "tasters of fine wine" on the prostitution circuit.

After they met in 2009, Minetti, 28, was plucked by Berlusconi to become a candidate for his centre-right Freedom People (PdL) party in the 2010 elections. Last month she told the court that she had never invited anyone to his dinner parties and that she had felt "a sentiment of true love" for him.

While prostitution is legal in Italy, the minimum age is 18, and exploiting prostitutes is a crime.

Quote:

Silvio Berlusconi threatens Italy with political turmoil in battle with judges

PM Enrico Letta calls on all sides to act responsibly but Berlusconi demands judicial reform after tax fraud verdict

• Lizzy Davies in Rome
  
• The Guardian, Saturday 3 August 2013 07.45 AEST
  

Enrico Letta, the Italian premier. Photograph: Luigi Mistrulli/EPA

Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister who was convicted of tax fraud on Thursday, has reportedly told his centre-right MPs they must prepare for a fresh election if the current coalition government does not pursue judicial reform
Stinging from the supreme court's landmark decision to hand him the first definitive conviction in 20 years of legal tussles, the leader of the centre-right Freedom People party (PdL) held a meeting with his MPs in Rome at which he received a standing ovation.
"If there is not a reform of the justice system we are ready for elections," he told his followers. The comments will fuel concern that the eurozone's third-largest economy is entering a new period of uncertainty following the verdict.
Earlier in the day, Enrico Letta, the prime minister, called on all political players to act responsibly and keep his ruling coalition afloat "in the interests of the nation".
In the aftermath of the court's decision to uphold the former prime minister's conviction for tax fraud, Letta said: "It would be a crime not to keep going … because the government's work is starting to bear fruit."
But it was not certain that his appeal would be listened to by furious members of Berlusconi's PdL or an element of Letta's own centre-left Democratic party (PD) who may want to draw a line at being in government with a convicted criminal.
"This alliance is now unsustainable. The PD should draw up an exit strategy," Pippo Civati, a centre-left MP, was quoted as saying. "Let's pass the electoral law, then go straight back to the polls."
On Thursday Berlusconi was ordered to serve four years in prison, a sentence that has been commuted to one year under a 2006 amnesty and will consist, due to his age, of detention under house arrest or community service rather than jail.
The five judges of the court of cassation ordered another part of the previous sentence a ban on public office to be re-evaluated by a lower court.
The conviction, Berlusconi's first in 20 years of cat and mouse with the courts, provoked outrage from supporters of Italy's longest-serving postwar prime minister. MPs in the PdL on Friday rushed to their leader's defence, declaring their unfailing support for him.
"No sentence will ever be able to deprive Berlusconi of the leadership … which millions of Italians have always seen in him," said one MP, Mariastella Gelmini. "Once again Silvio Berlusconi is giving everyone a lesson in dignity, courage and love for Italy."
His one-year sentence will not be enforced until the autumn but a potentially explosive vote on Berlusconi's future in the upper house of parliament, or senate, could come sooner, probably in September.
Under an anti-corruption law passed last year by the outgoing technocratic government of Mario Monti, the billionaire media tycoon will be ineligible to run for office for the next six years. The senate will have to vote on whether or not to let him keep his seat a scenario that could expose the tensions not only in Lettta's coalition but within his deeply divided party as well.
Even if as is likely the senate votes to oust the 76-year-old, Berlusconi will still not be lacking in support. He will be able to continue as leader of the centre-right, in the same way that Beppe Grillo is the figurehead of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement despite not having been elected and himself having a criminal conviction.
Berlusconi has said he wants to disband the PdL and reform Forza Italia, the party with which he entered politics in the mid-1990s.
Renato Brunetta, head of the PdL in the lower house of parliament, told Italian radio: "Leaders aren't leaders because they are elected or because they're in parliament or have an MP's pass. Leaders are leaders because they represent a people, a part of the people, they represent history, they represent the past, the present, the future."
There is also speculation that Berlusconi may formally anoint his daughter, Marina, as his political heir and keep the family brand in the spotlight.
The fragile coalition government that Italy has had for just three months was the product of nearly two months of stalemate and fraught negotiations, and the president, Giorgio Napolitano, is understood to be desperate to avoid any repeat of the political paralysis.
On Friday, despite all the sound and fury, the financial markets appeared to have faith in the government's ability to survive, at least in the medium term. The spread between Italian 10-year bond yields and their German counterparts fell by eight basis points from the previous day. Shares in Mediaset, Berlusconi's broadcasting empire, dipped in early trade.

Quote:

I chased ageing playboy Silvio Berlusconi, says ex-premier's young fiancée as he tries to rebuild reputation

Mogul, who turns 77 on Sunday, was famously dismissed by his ex-wife as a man 'who consorts with minors'
MICHAEL DAY

MILAN

WEDNESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2013
























Humiliated by his first definitive criminal conviction and with opponents preparing to boot him out of parliament, a desperate Silvio Berlusconi has wheeled out family and friends for a spot of decent PR.
But even an airbrushed photo shoot in the latest edition of Italian Vanity Fair, the ageing playboy and his young fiancée, Francesca Pascale, has produced sneers and titters, with 27-year-old Ms Pascale revealing she first fancied the ex-premier when she was a young girl and under age.
Berlusconi, who turns 77 on Sunday, was famously dismissed by his ex-wife Veronica Lario as a man "who consorts with minors". He is currently appealing against a conviction for paying for sex with an under-age prostitute, so Italians might imagine that dwelling on the half-century age gap between the couple had been marked off limits by the PR people.
"I was under age when I decided that I would get him," said former Naples shop assistant, Ms Pascale, in the magazine's cover feature. "I immediately offered to leave him my phone number and asked him for his."
Berlusconi replied: "Well, you are keen," according to Ms Pascale.
Some commentators speculated that the mogul wanted to show how some older men are pursued by women young enough to be their grandchildren. To underline the point, Ms Pascale reveals how "women threw themselves at him".
Ms Pascale, who was a teenage activist in Berlusconi's Forza Italia political party, said she was not put off by her boyfriend's much-publicised sex parties. She added, however: "It wasn't easy for me. I never attended those dinner parties because I knew I would not have been able to keep quiet." She said in the interview that she hoped to marry the disgraced former premier.
Ms Pascale doesn't say exactly what it was that first attracted her to the billionaire tycoon. But Berlusconi told Vanity Fair: "She has brought me joy without asking for anything in return."
Next month, Berlusconi is due to begin his year of house arrest or community service as a punishment for tax fraud.

Quote:Italy plunged into chaos as Berlusconi withdraws ministers from coalitionMove damned as 'mad and irresponsible' by prime minister of a country that is enduring its longest recession in decades
Lizzy Davies in Rome
The Observer, Saturday 28 September 2013 22.41 BST
Jump to comments (296)
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Silvio Berlusconi's move has surprised many analysts. Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters
All five ministers from Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party said on Saturday night they were resigning from Italy's grand coalition government in a dramatic move that plunged the country back into political uncertainty and raised the possibility of fresh elections.
Just days before a senate committee is expected to vote for him to be stripped of his seat following a conviction for tax fraud, Berlusconi said he was withdrawing his support from Enrico Letta's government over an increase in sales tax.
Letta, who has fought to hold the coalition together for five months of tensions and threats, called the move "mad and irresponsible" and said it was based on a "blatant lie". The centre-left prime minister will on Sunday meet the president, Giorgio Napolitano, who is known to be desperate to avoid any return to the polls.
Talks will begin on whether an alternative parliamentary majority can be found to support a new Letta cabinet. He had called last week for the government to be put to a confidence vote, and, although it was unclear whether that would go ahead, the prime minister said on Saturday night: "Everyone will assume their own responsibilities before the country in parliament."
Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy, is in its longest recession in decades and can ill afford more instability and rudderless leadership. "Measures we were working on now risk being set back," the labour minister, Enrico Giovannini, told Italian television. "On Monday our borrowing costs are going to rise by many points."
Citing Italy's continuing economic troubles, Beppe Grillo, the figurehead of the opposition anti-establishment Five Star Movement, called for fresh elections. "We need to go to the polls to win and save Italy," he wrote on his blog. "It's the last train."
But Stefano Fassina, the deputy economy minister and Democratic party (PD) MP, insisted the best way forward would be to find a new majority to carry out urgently needed reforms. "We won't go to elections because we will find a solution in parliament. I am sure that in parliament there is a majority that could avoid that," he was quoted by the Ansa news agency as saying.
Berlusconi's move made on the eve of his 77th birthday surprised many analysts. Amid threats throughout the summer, some had suspected Berlusconi of bluffing in order to win last-minute concessions on his legal problems. On Friday, a senate committee is due to meet to vote on whether he should be expelled from the upper house of parliament, and by mid-October he has to decide whether to carry out his tax fraud sentence under house arrest or in community service. The committee vote, which is expected to go against him, would still have to be ratified in a full senate vote.
The imminence of these problems appeared to have prompted the billionaire media magnate to side with party hawks, rather than those PdL members who over the summer had been urging a more conciliatory stance within the coalition.
Amid questions over whether the party would back Berlusconi to the hilt, there were hints on Saturday night that the resignations had not met with the approval of all in the party. "I think that a decision of such deep political importance should have required an in-depth discussion," said Fabrizio Cicchitto, one PdL MP.