Berlusconi acquitted in one bunga bunga bribery case (5)

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 17 - A Rome court on Thursday acquitted Silvio Berlusconi of bribing a Neapolitan singer to lie about the three-time ex-premier and media magnate's bunga bunga parties.
    The court also cleared the singer and friend of the former premier, Mariano Apicella, for alleged perjury.
    The case was one of several regarding the alleged suborning of witnesses to the parties, which Berlusconi has always said were "elegant soirées".
    They all take their name from a Moroccan teen runaway and exotic dancer, Karima El Mahroug, who went by the stage name of Ruby Heartstealer and who Berlusconi paid for sex.
    The billionaire mogul was cleared of paying for sex with a minor after judges ruled he could not have known Ruby, who he claimed was then Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak's niece, was only 17 at the time.
    After his and Apicella's acquittals, Berlusconi said "I am happy and satisfied. I also appreciate that the public prosecutor himself asked for for an acquittal.
    "The elements put forward by the defence," he added, "have clarified beyond reasonable doubt the absence of elements of opacity in this affair'.
    Trials are still ongoing over several other strands of the Ruby affair, including the alleged bribery of young women dubbed the 'Olgettine' after the upscale Milanese apartment block where Berlusconi housed them. (ANSA).