Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex with an under-age Moroccan teen 13 times at his villa near Milan, prosecutors said in a document filed on Tuesday seeking indictments against three aides for allegedly soliciting prostitutes for the Italian leader.
The seven-page document alleges that the sex-fueled parties started with dinner, progressed to erotic dancing involving the prime minister and culminated with Berlusconi’s choice of a sex partner, or partners.
Prosecutors have formally closed the investigation and are seeking indictments against the aides, whom they accuse of identifying possible sex partners for Berlusconi and informing them of payment and other compensation “that they would have received for their sexual availability.”
The prime minister separately faces trial on April 6 on charges of under-age prostitution and using his influence to cover it up.
A judge must now decide whether to indict the three aides, and start a separate trial.
COMPLAINT
Berlusconi denies all charges, and his lawyers have filed a complaint to Rome prosecutors, saying they feared a setup. Ruby has also denied having had sex with the prime minister, and says she has never acted as a prostitute.
Besides the Moroccan teen, Karima el-Mahroug, known by her nickname Ruby, the document identifies 32 other women whom the three aides involved in parties.
The prosecutors allege that the aides acted together in a criminal scheme to induce Ruby into prostitution.
The document says that Ruby “committed sexual acts with Silvio Berlusconi, for payment in cash and other compensation, at his residence” outside of Milan on 13 occasions from Feb. 14 to May 2 last year, the document says. Ruby, who has since turned 18, was 17 at the time.
‘BUNGA, BUNGA’
According to the document, the evenings proceeded in three phases. Dinner was followed by erotic dancing dubbed “bunga, bunga.” During this phase, the women were either masked, did a striptease or erotic dance “touching each other mutually, touching or being touched in their intimate areas by Silvio Berlusconi.”
The evening ended with “a third phase [that] consisted of the choice, on the part of Silvio Berlusconi, of one or more girls with whom to spend a night of intimate relations, people who were paid sums of cash, or other compensation beyond what was given to the other participants,” the document said.
The three aides are Nicole Minetti — who helped win Ruby’s release from police custody after she was picked up for allegedly stealing 3,000 euros (US$4,195) from an associate — Dario “Lele” Mora and Emilio Fede, both confidantes of Berlusconi’s.
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