The Moroccan teenager at the center of a prostitution scandal that has sent Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to trial says she has done nothing wrong and that “all the gold in the world” could not make up for the suffering she has endured.
In an e-mail exchange with The Associated Press on Wednesday and Thursday, the woman nicknamed Ruby lamented that she has been “treated as a prostitute by all the Italian and foreign media.”
“I WANT TO BE COMPENSATED for having been hurt so much and all the gold in the world would not be enough,” Ruby, whose real name is Karima el-Mahroug, wrote in Italian.
Ruby, now 18, requested 15,000 euros (US$20,340) for a full TV interview, saying: “I don’t do anything for nothing.”
The AP, a not-for-profit news cooperative, does not pay for interviews.
Berlusconi was indicted on Tuesday on charges that he paid for sex with Ruby when she was 17 and under age, then used his influence to cover it up.
The abuse of influence charge relates to efforts by the prime minister to get Ruby out of the custody of Milan police when she was detained in May last year for an unrelated suspected theft of 3,000 euros.
His trial begins on April 6 in Milan.
Berlusconi, 74, has denied ever paying for sex. He has dismissed the accusations as “groundless” and said he is not worried by the trial.
Ruby has also denied a sexual relationship with Berlusconi, saying in a Jan. 19 television interview on a TV channel owned by Berlusconi that he never “put a finger on me.”
She said, however, that he had given her 7,000 euros on their first meeting. Ruby said that at the time she identified herself as Egyptian and gave her age as 24, rather than 17.
The judge who issued the indictment said Berlusconi intervened with Milan police “with the clear goal” of “hiding” the crime of prostitution to “ensure impunity.”
The indictment also lists 13 nights that Ruby spent at Berlusconi’s villa in Arcore, just outside Milan, from Valentine’s Day last year through May 2, 2010.
It said the evenings were “in exchange for sums of money that were paid in cash by the suspect” or by his accountant — or for other gifts such as jewelry.
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