AS WAS widely expected, the Milan state prosecutor’s office yesterday formally requested the right to try Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges of exploitation of underage prostitution and abuse of office in relation to the “Rubygate” sex scandal.
The prosecutors made their request for a fast-track trial to a Milan preliminary hearing court which can decide within the next five days, or longer, if Mr Berlusconi has a case to answer.
Even though both the prime minister’s defence lawyers and the parliament have argued that Mr Berlusconi should be tried by a special tribunal of ministers, the Milan investigative magistrates have clearly rejected this line of defence.
When Mr Berlusconi last May rang a Milan police station to request that 17-year-old Karima “Ruby” El Mahroug, a regular guest at his “sexy” parties in his Arcore residence near Milan, be released, they claim, he was not acting in the interests of the state.
Even though Mr Berlusconi has claimed that he made the phone call because he believed Ruby to be the niece of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and thus wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident, the prosecutors argue that he knew only too well who she was and that he wanted her out of the police station as quickly as possible, so as to conceal any possible links between underage Ruby and his parties.
The magistrates’ decision yesterday inevitably prompted the ire of the prime minister who yet again denied any wrongdoing, saying: “This whole trial is a farce, the accusations are completely without foundation. These procedures break the law, they go against parliament because the Milan prosecutor’s office has neither territorial nor legal jurisdiction on the matter ... I just wonder who’s going to pay for this shame and disgrace? In the end the state will pay. But magistrates should be responsible for what they do, too, and we will introduce that [responsibility].”
Leoluca Orlando, of the Italy of Values (IDV) party, said in response: “The premier has started up his usual campaign to punish the magistrates. Mr Berlusconi is threatening the judges and inciting a clash between powers within the state. He is quite simply dangerous and subversive in that he is in the grip of an uncontrollable delirium.
“When he claims that he rang the police to have Ruby released in order to avoid a diplomatic incident, it is as if he thinks that Italians are all idiots.”
Further trouble for the prime minister may come from yet another series of wire-tap revelations, reported in yesterday’s Italian media and which feature in an unrelated Naples-based investigation into a VIP prostitution ring.
In a series of tapped conversations, escort and TV starlet Sara Tommasi, another regular of the Arcore parties, claims to have become involved in a circle of sex and drugs involving not only the prime minister but also his brother Paolo and his daughter Marina.
Ms Berlusconi last night vehemently denied any involvement, claiming that she does not even know Tommasi.
Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, a staunch government ally, yesterday accused the magistrates of “exaggerating”, adding, however, “Berlusconi is in the wrong . . . If he is in all of this mess, it is because he did certain things, not me.”