JUST A day after Italy’s constitutional court ruled against him, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday found himself facing further serious judicial problems when it was revealed that he is under investigation on charges of abuse of office and involvement in underage prostitution.
The allegations relate to 18-year-old Moroccan runaway Karima El Mahroug, otherwise known as “Ruby”, who made international headlines last October when she claimed that she had attended sex parties last spring at Mr Berlusconi’s private residence in Arcore, near Milan, parties enlivened by a after-dinner erotic moment known as the “bunga, bunga”. At the time of the parties, Ms Mahroug was 17.
The case became more complicated last May when Ms Mahroug, one of a number of people who feature in an ongoing Milan-based investigation into a VIP prostitution ring, was arrested in Milan on theft charges.
Given that she was officially registered as a “runaway”, police were about to have her enrolled in a state home when the Milan police chief received a phone call from the prime minister’s office, advising them to let the girl go and urging that she be “consigned” to Lombardy regional councillor Nicole Minetti.
A July 28th police report claims that the police chief of staff, Pietro Ostuni, was contacted by the prime minister’s office, informing him that Ms Mahroug was a relative of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and that she should “not be detained” for fear of a serious diplomatic incident with Eqypt.
Media reports yesterday claim that an analysis of Ms Mahroug’s mobile phone records shows that not only did she attend a Valentine’s Day ball at Arcore last February but that she also spent three successive days there from April 24th to April 26th. Records show that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was a guest of Mr Berlusconi during those days. Commentators speculate that Mr Berlusconi may be charged not only with “abuse of office” but also with the “exploitation of underage prostitution”.
Yesterday, Mr Berlusconi’s lawyers, Niccolò Ghedini and Piero Longo, said that the latest charges highlighted the “unsustainable” nature of Mr Berlusconi’s relations with “a certain part of the judiciary”.
Speaking on Italian TV yesterday morning, Mr Berlusconi accused magistrates of making “invented, ridiculous and grotesque” charges against him, adding he was not much surprised when the Constitutional Court threw out legislation, introduced by his government and intended to grant him immunity from prosecution whilst in office, on Thursday.
Opposition IDV party leader and former investigating magistrate Antonio Di Pietro rejected Mr Berlusconi’s claims that he is persecuted by magistrates, saying that with his behaviour the prime minister persecutes himself.