“WHEN THE dinner was over, the prime minister said, ‘Now, we’ll have some bunga, bunga’ and he explained what it was, that is a sexual thing. The whole group moved downstairs and at this point the De Vivo twins undressed, down to their bra and pants. And then the prime minister started to touch them and they touched him in his intimate parts . . . And then a Brazilian girl, wearing only a thong, did a very erotic dance and at the point the other girls all began to dance topless . . .”
As was to have been expected, the latest revelations regarding the “Rubygate” sex scandal involving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi make for lively reading.
The above extract, carried widely by Italian media yesterday, comes from the latest dossier of evidence presented to parliament on Tuesday by the Milan prosecutors who are investigating Mr Berlusconi on charges of “exploitation of underage prostitution” and “abuse of public office” in relation to parties held earlier this year in his private residence at Arcore, near Milan.
In theory, the dossier was to have remained confidential and available only to the members of parliament’s immunity committee. However, as happened earlier this month, much of its 227 pages began to hit websites within hours of being delivered to parliament.
Yesterday, Mr Berlusconi continued to deny any wrongdoing, calling the accusations against him “mud” and arguing that nothing untoward took place at the “elegant” parties in Arcore. Having seen the most recent dossier, however, commentators argued that the latest evidence, drawn from phone taps and judicial interrogations, pose some very serious questions for the prime minister.
The dossier names a third underage girl, 17-year-old Brazilian prostitute Iris Berardi, who is alleged to have attended the prime minister’s parties. The prosecutors provide testimony which, they claim, proves that the girls were paid to attend the parties.
For much of the last month, Mr Berlusconi and his supporters have argued that there is nothing improper or transgressive about the term “bunga, bunga”. One acquaintance of the prime minister, actress Sabrina Began, suggested last week that it was a pet name attributed to her. The most recent evidence – witness the opening quote from belly dancer Maria Makdoum – would suggest otherwise.
Another element to emerge from the prosecutors’ dossier is the claim that on Saturday, January 15th, on the day after it was revealed that Mr Berlusconi was under investigation, all the women and girls regularly in attendance at his parties were summoned to Arcore to meet the prime minister’s defence lawyers.
Phone taps in the prosecutors’ dossier suggest that one of the key figures in the investigation, 18-year-old Moroccan Karim “Ruby” El Mahroug, was paid a large sum, perhaps €4 million, in return for her “silence”. This dossier also carries phone-tapped conversations in which another key witness, Milan regional councillor Nicole Minetti, is heard to say the prime minister is only concerned with saving his “flaccid ass”.