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.
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