http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0624/Bunga-bunga-busted-Be...'Bunga bunga' busted: Berlusconi convicted of hiring underage girl for sex
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's infamous former premier, was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from politics for life for paying an underage Moroccan prostitute for sex during so-called 'bunga bunga' parties.
By Colleen Barry, Associated Press / June 24, 2013
Karima 'Ruby' el-Mahroug, seen here last month after testifying, was 17 when former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi paid her for sex during infamous 'bunga bunga' parties at his villa. Berlusconi, 76, was sentenced on Monday to seven years in prison and barred from public office for life.
Luca Bruno / AP
MILAN
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's flamboyant former premier, was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from politics for life Monday for paying an underage prostitute for sex during infamous "bunga bunga" parties and forcing public officials to cover it up.
It was the most damaging setback yet for the 76-year-old Berlusconi, who has been tried numerous times for his business dealings but never before for his personal conduct.
Still, he vowed that his days as a political force are not over. He has two levels of appeal — and his supporters quickly rallied around him.
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The charges against the billionaire media mogul resulted from what became widely known in Italy as "bunga bunga" parties hosted in 2010 by Berlusconi, then the sitting premier, at his villa near Milan, where he wined and dined beautiful young women.
Berlusconi's defense described the dinner parties as elegant soirees; prosecutors said they were sex-fueled gatherings that women were paid to attend. The woman at the center of the scandal, Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby, has described aspiring showgirls stripping provocatively for the then-Italian leader.
Both Berlusconi and el-Mahroug denied ever having sex, and el-Mahroug says she never worked as a prostitute.
After the verdict, Berlusconi said in a message posted on Facebook that he believed he would be acquitted "because in the facts there is really no possibility to convict me."
He called the sentence "incredible, of a violence never seen or heard before, to try to eliminate me from the political life of this country." He pledged to "resist this persecution, because I am absolutely innocent, and I don't want in any way to abandon my battle to make Italy a truly free and just country."
The Milan criminal court's ruling was unexpectedly stiff, going further than the original charges and openly questioning whether many of the young women who testified in Berlusconi's defense had lied on the stand to protect him.
The panel of three judges, all women, said Berlusconi went beyond using his influence to cover up his relationship with the then-17-year-old Moroccan, as originally charged. They said he stepped in to win her release from police custody when she was accused of theft.
As a result, they added one year to the six requested by prosecutors.
The court also said it was turning over to prosecutors files containing the testimony of more than 30 young women who attended the now-infamous "bunga bunga" parties to investigate if they had lied under oath when they denied a sexual character to the gatherings.
Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, who is also secretary of Berlusconi's People of Liberty Party, said he told his political mentor to "hang in there, and keep moving on" in a phone call after the verdict.
Berlusconi was not in court for the sentencing, but his lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said he would appeal a decision he called both "largely expected" and "out of reality." The Berlusconi camp has long accused Milan magistrates of mounting a campaign to sideline him politically.
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