Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s trial on charges of having sex with an underage prostitute resumed yesterday, a day after his center-right coalition suffered a crushing defeat in local elections.
Berlusconi himself was not at the hearing, where his lawyers were to present a series of complaints and to challenge the court’s right to hear the case.
The 74-year-old is accused of having paid for sex last year with Moroccan-born Karima El Mahroug, better known as “Ruby the Heart Stealer,” when she was 17.
He is also accused of abuse of power for having allegedly pressured police to have her released from custody when she was arrested for theft.
He has denied all the charges, accusing prosecutors of plotting against him.
Berlusconi faces several years in prison, but is unlikely to face jail time even if convicted because of sentencing guidelines in Italy for over-70s.
Berlusconi was attending a bilateral summit in Romania on Monday and yesterday.
The trial comes at a very sensitive time for the billionaire tycoon. His People of Freedom party suffered defeat in local elections on Monday, losing control of Milan to the left for the first time in 18 years.
Left-wing lawyer Giuliano Pisapia triumphed in Milan with 55.1 percent of the vote against incumbent mayor Letizia Moratti’s 44.89 percent.
In Naples, which was already controlled by the left, Luigi de Magistris, a former prosecutor, also defeated his rival with 65.37 percent.
The center-right lost other votes in Cagliari, Novara and Trieste, but the defeat in Milan — Italy’s economic capital — was seen as the most symbolically significant and a bellwether for anti-Berlusconi sentiment.
Berlusconi had actively campaigned on Moratti’s behalf and said the vote should be seen as a test of his popularity, which has been falling after a series of legal and sex scandals and continued weakness in the economy.
“I think the will for change is a signal for the entire country … Berlusconi has become obsessed in recent years with his own affairs,” Pisapia said in an interview with news channel SkyTG24 after his victory.
From Romania, Berlusconi acknowledged defeat, but remained combative, Italian news media reported.
“We lost. It’s clear, but now we have to remain calm and move forward. The majority is determined and united,” Berlusconi said.
“Every time I suffer a setback, I triple my forces,” he said.
Analysts say the defeat will put pressure on the coalition between Berlusconi and the Northern League party, which has shown signs of growing disenchantment with the prime minister’s leadership in recent weeks.
“It’s a personal defeat for Berlusconi … We can say that Berlusconi’s time is up,” said Marc Lazar, a French professor specializing in Italian politics.
Lazar said that the partnership with the Northern League would be “more uncertain,” but said the vote would not bring down the government.
“It’s a major shock for the governing coalition,” he added.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS