Silvio Berlusconi and the Witnesses

Wednesday, March 30 2011. The tricky ways of Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers (in the intent of finding any possible way out of the sex scandale dubbed Rubygate).

Niccolò Ghedini, lawyer

As the Prime Minister was showing off in Lampedusa, his army of indefatigable lawyers (led by Niccolò Ghedini) and solicitors were preparing for the mother of all battles, to be fought in few days.

Mara Carfagna, minister

The public prosecutors - who pledged to shut Silvio Berlusconi behind bars, sooner of later – this time are trying to prove that the PM had sex with an under-age dancer, Karima El Mahroug (commonly known as Ruby “Rubacuori”, the Heart Stealer). And paid money for her "sexual services".

More and more people refer to this sex scandal as the Rubygate.

The first hearings will take place on 6 April (if the Parliament is not going to rule the date off on the previous day, when a vote conflict of competence is foreseen), that's why Berlusconi's lawyers are sharpening their knives.

Amongst the trickiest possible weapons, one of the smartest, if you want to drag things out is the following: pack the witness box with people, possible celebrities, to make the greatest possible fuss.

That's why there are almost 80 witnesses (more then a few are women) ready to be heard.

Clooney and Canalis, friends

The defence has called the following witnesses, amongst the others (quite a few are women, beautiful women): Venezuelan showgirl Aida Yespica and Argentinian actress and showgirls Belèn Rodriguez (there is a numerous colony of South American beauties in Italy, as you might expect), Minister of for Equal Opportunity Mara Carfagna (Maxim's "World´s Hottest Politician”), Public Education's Minister Mariastella Gelmini and Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini, Neapolitan singer Mariano Apicella, journalist (and king of gossip) Carlo Rossella, anchorwoman Barbara D'Urso, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, Hollywood star George Clooney and his girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis.

Quite a list, isn't it? Funny Berlusconi.

A bewildered George Clooney considers “odd” the idea that he could be called as a witness in the bunga-bunga sex scandal trial of Silvio Berlusconi, since he only met the Italian prime minister once (and it was in relation of quite a different topic: raising money for the population of Darfour).

Ilda Boccassini, judge

On the other side of the fence, the judge Ilda Boccassini and her prosecutors have also prepared quite a long list of witnesses (more than 130), but 33 (or perhaps 43, as somebody said) out of them are just, you know, bunga-bunga girls and women.

Video from our YouTube Channel: Berluschannel