Lawyers for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi want to call Hollywood star George Clooney and soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo to testify in his upcoming sex trial, one of his legal team said.
Both are on a list of 78 people, including two serving ministers in Berlusconi’s government, his legal team wants to call as witnesses.
Defense lawyers say Clooney and his girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis were among those who attended dinner parties at Berlusconi’s villa at Arcore. Prosecutors say those parties were the scenes of orgies and strip shows with prostitutes.
Photo: Reuters
Berlusconi is to stand trial on Wednesday for allegedly having paid dancer Karima El Mahroug, nicknamed “Ruby the Heart Stealer,” for sex when she was 17 after one of his parties. They both deny the allegation.
“We have proposed George Clooney as a witness,” said the lawyer, from the from the Ghedini-Longo law firm. “Ruby says both Clooney and Canalis were at a party at Arcore.”
She and Berlusconi have both insisted that the parties were entirely innocent.
Clooney issued a statement expressing puzzlement.
“It seems odd since I’ve only met Berlusconi once and that was in an attempt to get aid into Darfur,” Clooney said.
Berlusconi’s defense added Ronaldo’s name to the list after Mahroug told investigating judges she had sex with a Real Madrid player after meeting him in a Milan nightclub in January last year.
Ronaldo, currently the highest paid soccer player in the world, has denied ever meeting her or giving her 4,000 euros (US$5,635) in cash for her sexual services.
The Milan judges hearing the trial are not obliged to call those listed by the defense. They can refuse to grant the defense’s request if they decide the testimony of a witness is not relevant to the case in question.
The case centers around allegations that Berlusconi not only paid for sex with Ruby, but improperly used his power as prime minister by asking police to release her after she was arrested for suspected theft in May last year.
Using the services of prostitutes is not a crime in Italy, but paying for sex with a girl under the age of 18 is illegal. Ruby turned 18 in November last year and the prosecution alleges that Berlusconi had sex with her several months earlier.
Berlusconi denies both the allegations against him. The 74-year-old prime minister has protested that he is the victim of a politically motivated campaign of harassment by “communist” judges.
The prosecution has submitted its own list of 136 witnesses, including 49 girls who attended the billionaire media magnate’s parties, some of whom have provided photographic and video evidence of the raunchy evenings.
The defense team argues that the prosecution witness’ lurid allegations of orgies and of Berlusconi’s nights with prostitutes are simply lies.
Clooney is no stranger to Italian courts. Last year, the 49-year-old Hollywood heart-throb appeared at the fraud trial of three people accused of having coopted his name for a fashion label.
The Golden Globe-winning actor has a house on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, not far from Berlusconi’s private villa at Arcore.
He spends several months a year there, sometimes with Italian model and actress Canalis. She, too, features on the list of 78 witnesses the prime minister’s legal team would like to call in Berlusconi’s defense.
Other witnesses requested by the defense include Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and Italian Equality Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna.
Carfagna has a law degree and worked for several years on Italian television shows and as a model, before entering politics in 2004.
She came sixth in the 1997 Miss Italy contest.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
RSS