Thirty women. Eighteen parties. Guests willing to supply sex “if the need arises.”
Two newspapers published what they described on Wednesday as excerpts from prosecutors’ interrogation of a businessman who said he paid dozens of women to attend parties at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Sardinia villa and his Rome residence.
Corriere della Sera and La Stampa reported that Gianpaolo Tarantini told prosecutors in the city of Bari this summer that some of the 30 or so “image girls” were willing to provide sex “if the need arose” at any of the 18 parties.
Among the women Tarantini told prosecutors he paid 1,000 euros (US$1,500) to was Patrizia D’Addario, an admitted call girl who has claimed in interviews that she spent the night with Berlusconi in Rome. Berlusconi has said he doesn’t recognize D’Addario’s name or face and has denied he ever paid a woman for sex.
Berlusconi has been under fire for months, ever since his wife denounced his fondness for younger women in announcing she was divorcing him. While polls indicate he still has the support of most Italians, the scandal has begun taking its toll politically, with Berlusconi clashing with the Catholic Church and, more recently, a key right-wing ally.
Nevertheless, Berlusconi has continued to insist Italians want him this way, saying on Wednesday at a gathering of young party faithful that he loves everyone, including “beautiful women,” and joking that the women in the audience who wanted to ask questions should leave their phone numbers with organizers.
He again denounced the media, telling the audience they shouldn’t bother reading newspapers — which exposed the Berlusconi parties, D’Addario’s claims and, on Wednesday, Tarantini’s testimony.
Prosecutor Giuseppe Scelsi, who is leading the probe of Tarantini for alleged exploitation of prostitutes, was not in his office on Wednesday. But Bari’s new chief prosecutor, Antonio Laudati appeared to indirectly confirm the accuracy of the excerpts when he complained that their publication had damaged the investigation..
“I’m aware of the national and perhaps international pressures that exist now on the Bari prosecutor’s office,” ANSA reported Laudati as saying.
“So I’m prepared to try to establish along with my colleagues relations with the media that guarantee correct behavior and most importantly the correct development of investigations because violating secrecy always damages investigations,” he said.
Italian law bars prosecutors or lawyers from talking about an investigation while it is still under way.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS