Berlusconi sex trial verdict expected June 24

PanARMENIAN.Net - An Italian court is expected to rule whether ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex with an underage prostitute and abused his term in office, according to BBC News.

Prosecutors at the trial in Milan are demanding a six-year sentence and a lifetime ban from public office. The 76-year-old media tycoon denies all the allegations.

Berlusconi, who is already embroiled in several court cases, was given a four-year sentence for tax fraud in October 2012. He lost an appeal to overturn the conviction last week.

The expected verdict Monday, June 24, could have major political repercussions for Italy, analysts say. They say a guilty ruling could weaken current Prime Minister Enrico Letta's coalition government which depends on the support of Berlusconi's center-right party.

The prosecution in Milan says that women invited to Berlusconi's private residence for so-called "bunga-bunga" party evenings were part of a prostitution system set up for his personal sexual satisfaction.

The allegations focus specifically on his relationship with Moroccan girl Karima El-Mahroug, known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer", whom he is accused of paying for sex in 2010. She was 17 at the time.

Both she and Berlusconi have denied the allegations.

El-Mahroug says she did receive 7,000 euros but it was as a gift after a party. She also told a separate trial last month that she had lied to investigators when she said she had bathed naked during parties held at the former prime minister's villa at Arcore, north-east of Milan.

However, Prosecutor Ilda Boccassini told the Berlusconi trial during closing arguments last month that the young woman had lied when she denied having had sex with the former prime minister.

She said El-Mahroug had received more than 4.5m euros from Berlusconi between October and December 2010.

Berlusconi is also charged with abusing his power of office after calling a police station to press for the release of Mahroug from custody when she was arrested in Milan in a separate petty theft case.

He has acknowledged the phone-call but says it was made as a favor to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose granddaughter he believed Mahroug to be.

He told a TV program about the "bunga-bunga" broadcast on one of his Mediaset channels that he had "absolutely never had intercourse with Ruby".

Prosecutors, whom Berlusconi accuses of waging a politicized campaign against him, want him to serve a one-year jail term on the charge of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and five years for abuse of office.