Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday
testified to prosecutors in a case of alleged extortion by one
of the women who attended his so-called bunga bunga sex parties,
Giovanna Rigato.
She is suspected of demanding one million euros in exchange
for keeping mum with the media and prosecutors about the true
nature of what Berlusconi maintained were "elegant evenings".
On January 30 the three-time former premier and media magnate
was indicted for allegedly paying several young women to remain
silent on the real nature of the parties in the so-called Ruby
III case.
"Now that I have returned to centre stage they have started
hitting me again," said Berlusconi, head of the centre-right
Forza Italia (FI) party.
The billionaire mogul said that, even though the first Ruby
case ended in his acquittal, "many young women were damaged by
the case and I felt obliged to help them out".
The trial begins April 5.
Berlusconi is accused of paying money to at least 13 young
women between April-June 2015 and November 2016 to allegedly
testify that the parties were decorous and stylish affairs.
The FI leader is accused of continuing to bribe the women
with payments of up to 15,000 euros at a time, according to the
prosecution, on the basis of statements by Berlusconi's
accountant Giuseppe Spinelli.
A preliminary hearings judge on October 19 indicted former
exotic dancer Karima El Mahroug - stage name Ruby Heartstealer -
and 22 others for corruption and perjury in the case.
That trial began on January 11.
The case against Berlusconi is being dealt with separately
after he was unable to attend an October hearing on the grounds
that he was in the United States for a check-up after undergoing
heart surgery earlier in 2016.
In the first trial linked to the case, Berlusconi was
convicted of paying Ruby for sex while she was a minor, but was
acquitted on appeal over lack of evidence that he knew she was
under 18 at the time.
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