Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted
Wednesday in the Ruby III trial where he was accused of bribing
witnesses to lie about the real nature of his bunga bunga
parties, which he has always said were elegant soirees.
The three-time ex-premier and media mogul was acquitted of
corruption in judicial acts in one of several trials stemming
from the case of his paying an underage prostitute called Ruby
for sex, in which he was acquitted because he did not know she
was just 17 at the time.
Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, was also acquitted
Wednesday, as were all 29 defendants.
Reacting to the acquittal, she said that Ruby, the stage name
she assumed as a teenage Moroccan runaway exotic dancer, had
been "a complete invention".
Some 20 young women who were guests at the parties were cleared,
like Berlusconi, with the fullest form of an acquittal in Italy,
"because the act was not committed".
Just before the verdict, on Monday night, the government
withdrew its stance as civil plaintiff in the trial, a position
that then premier Poalo Gentiloni assumed in 2017 arguing that
the office of premier had been badly tarnished in the case.
Governmen sources said arguments made by the Gentiloni
government no longer held true.
Prosecutors in the 'Ruby III' trial had requested a jail term
of six years for Berlusconi and a five-year term for Karima El
Mahroug aka Ruby Heartstealer.
There were 28 other conviction requests including one year and
four months for former centre-right Forza Italia (FI) Senator
and Berlusconi factotum Maria Rosaria Rossi, two years for
Berlusconi magazine journalist Carlo Rossella, and up to five
years for 20 young women who attended what the ex-premier called
"elegant soirees" - all for perjury.
Berlusconi denied paying anyone to lie for him and insisted the
alleged bunga bunga parties were innocent affairs.
He says he is the victim of politically inspired judicial
persecution, as in the many other cases he has faced over the
years, which have resulted in only one final and definitive
conviction, for tax fraud, that saw him ejected from the Senate
for a few years.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
