Mon, 24 June 2013. Berlusconi found guilty of having abused power and had sex with a under-age prostitute, sentenced to seven years in jail.
After more than seven hours of deliberation, today Milan's court judges sentenced to seven years in jail the 76-year old former prime minister of Italy guilty of a couple of charges related to the Rubygate (the inquiry about the Moroccan belly dancer - and allegedly whore - Karima El Mahroug ).
7-year jail sentence for Mr Berlusconi
The sentence involves a ban from holding
public office for life. All this pending the outcome of an appeal.
Wed, 19 June, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi risks of being booted out of politics for good, as he loses appeal to the constitutional court in relation with Mediaset tax fraud trial.
The so-called Mediaset trial has been lingering on for more than 10 years (Wikipedia provides quite an extensive picture over Berlusconi's trials and allegations, click here to check this out).
Will Silvio end up in handcuffs?
the list of
people involved is pretty long - a fair share of the Berlusconi
family is in it, like Silvio's children Marina Berlusconi and
Piersilvio Berlusconi – but it's the head of the family who has
more to lose, since he could end up banned from holding public
office, if things turn nasty.
Saturday, 8 June, 2013. Rumour has it that the newly formed Freedom Army is recruiting youngsters from schools, as it is sufficient to be 16 to help Silvio Berlusconi fight the Twenty Years' War and a large number of crusaders is needed to defeat the hordes communists dwelling in the country.
The Freedom Army recruiting web page
The Freedom Army (Esercito della Libertà) – also known as “Esercito di Silvio” (“Silvio's Army”) – is new initiative created by the entrepreneur Simone Furlan, founded with the goal to recruit volunteer crusaders to defend the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi from the continuous attacks from the judiciary, the communists, the anti-democratic forces and their allies. A clearly example of the bad faith of the prosecutors is the fact that they accused Silvio's former lover Nicole Minetti of having had sex for money with the billionaire, whilst she was in love with him. The jihad that the freedom fighters are expected to fight is the Twenty Years' War, a war clearly explained in a documentary broadcast by Mediaset's Canale 5, titled “The Twenty Years' War – Ruby's Last Act”.
Friday, 7 June, 2013. At the Ruby 2 trial Nicole Minetti denies having had “sex for money” and reveals that it was “true love” if she was hosted by Silvio Berlusconi at his villa(s), and reveals unprecedented “media aggression followed by a wave of scorn” against her.
Nicole Minetti in court
On 31 May prosecutors hinted that Nicole Minetti had being “performing sexual acts for money” in Silvio Berlusconi's villa(s), apparently with the former prime minister, during a trial – dubbed Ruby 2, from the name of the main character involved and because the Ruby #1 is the trial against Silvio himself – where Nicole is a defendant, together with Lele Mora and Emilio Fede.
Nicole Minetti is charged with “induction into prostitution”, as a organiser of bunga-bunga parties and recruiter of prostitutes (among them under-age belly dancer Karima El Mahroug aka Ruby the Heartstealer, nickname that dubbed the related proceedings). Proceedings are slowed down by many obstacles, Karima El Mahroug numerous lies didn't help much. but proceedings are always slow in Italy, aren't they? Prosecution asked for a 7-year sentence.
Friday, 31 May, 2013. During the closing arguments of the Ruby case, prosecutors asked for 7-year sentences for any of the Silvio Berlusconi 's friends involved in bunga-bunga parties and related sex scandal, for different reasons, as they illustrated.
Nicole Minetti seems to say: “Sex for money? Me?
Are you serious?”
Nicole Minetti, former regional councillor, showgirl and model (and - according to her - former girlfriend of Silvio Berlusconi), apart for having fulfilled tasks of “intermediation” in the fixing of the bunga-bunga parties, had an active role by “performing sexual acts for money”, according to prosecutor Antonio Sangermano, while women-connoisseurs “associates” Dario Gabriele “Lele” Mora and Emilio Fede “tested – or tasted - the pleasantness of the girls, checked their social-relational skills and then led into the circuit of the evenings” at Berlusconi's villa in Arcore.
They all deserve a reclusion of 7 years, according to the Public Prosecutor.
Fri, 24 May, 2013. Testifying as a witness at the a trial were three individuals are charged for favouring prostitution, Moroccan stripper Karima El Mahroug (aka Ruby the Heartstealer says she was “talking crap” when she gave away details of spicy parties at Silvio Berlusconi's villa."
Me a prostitute? If not a saint, I might be a nun!
Ruby Rubacuori (Italian for Heartstealer) appeared on the trial (which is already a news, she sometimes forget about it...) where former TV presenter (and Berlusconi's friend, at least before he got dramatically fired by Mediaset, in 2012) Emilio Fede, celebrity agent Lele Mora and Nicole Minetti, a former Lombardy local councillor, model and showgirl are accused of supplying prostitutes to Mr Berlusconi's so-called "bunga-bunga" festive evenings in his villa in Arcore. Nicole said she had been hanging around just because she was the one and only girlefriend of the media millionaire.
Sun, 12 May, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset broadcaster Canale 5 airs a two-hour documentary to demonstrate prosecutors sex-related charges against the former prime minister are groundless (at least to the public opinion), as a last act of a counteroffensive against the Italian judiciary.
All but chaste
“The twenty years' war” is the title of a two-hour documentary, that was aired on Sunday, the day before the prosecutor's closing arguments would be declared at the Rubygate sex scandal trial (the request would be a 6-year sentence), where Silvio Berlusconi is accused of abuse of power and having paid the then-minor Karima El-Mahroug (aka Ruby Heartstealer, Ruby Rubacuori in Italian) for sex.
Silvio Berlusconi's stand is that the dinners where young girls and women were invited (some of them were just kept at hand in the bunga-bunga army) were pretty “normal soirées” and that his guests “kept their cloths on”. Nicole Minetti was not an organiser (was she his grilfriend at that time, as she declared?). Prosecution thinks he has been running a prostitution ring. So far they have been finding it difficult to reconcile the two different positions.
Friday, 3 May 2013. Silvio Berlusconi staunch admirer and People of Liberty party's member of Italian parliament gets stripped of equal opportunities ministerial role over 'homophobic' comments.
The blonde Michaela Biancofiore, is an entrepreneur in the wellness industry, a politician, and a staunch defender and admirer of Silvio Berlusconi.
She once said of the former prime minister: «He has the defect to love women, but at least he's not like [former Lazio region's chairman] Marrazzo going with transsexuals,» (which is another version of good old Berlusconi's quote “It's better to be passionate about beautiful girls than to be gay.”, you can see the video of the performance on our YouTube channel by clicking here).
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes? Silvio certainly does!
To make it clearer, in October 2012, the young Michaela (she will turn 43 in December 2013) commented at a press conference from Villa Gernetto in this way: «Yes, I listened to the presentation of Berlusconi ... a clarity like no other, once again he has proved to be the only a statesman [in Italy], has shown an ability that frankly leaves you breathless, speechless, at this time there are no other leader at its height [figuratively speaking], and I would like to emphasize that to the Italian people.»
The fair-haired politician also tried to convince the Italians that the media tycoon was the right man to become the the new President of the Republic – creating an ad hoc Internet site (berlusconialquirinale.org, Berlusconi to the Quirinal Hill, where the official residence of the Italian Head of State is). Nothing doing, slightly more than 1,000 people signed up, the now 87-year-old Giorgio Napolitano kept the job as Italian Head of State (left and right couldn't agree on a joint candidate).
But his political career has been marked by naps and forty winks, one of the most celebrated one dates back at Karol Józef Wojtyła's (aka Pope John Paul II) beatification (nope, we haven't written a post on that, but will do).
Saturday, 13 April, 2013. During a gathering in Bari, Silvio Berlusconi said he will run for prime minister for a fifth time if a a new election will be held following the centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani rejects forming a government with him.
The role of the saviour of the fatherland is Silvio Berlusconi's favourite, and he is trying to impersonate it again, as Italy keeps on wasting time trying to muddle up with its disgraceful state without a government, two months after general election created three hostile and feckless blocs.
Silvio, Silvio, Silvio!
In the months before February general election, the former prime minister first said goodbye to political life, than decided he had to stay, but – he said – without running for office. At least not as premier, at the most as minister of Economy.
Well, now things seems to have changed again, as Silvio has realised that without him Italy will be just going to the dogs. So he decided to seek office as a PM for the fifth time. Roberto Benigni is not going to like it...
Thu, 11 April, 2013. Francesco Chiesa Soprani, former agent of Silvio Berlusconi's protégé Naomi Letizia, says in an interview that the former prime minister had sex with the girl when she was under-age.
As
some of you might remember, Silvio Berlusconi's second wife Veronica Lario decided to reveal to the public that his husband was “a sick
man in need of help“ because of his “uncontrollable” yearning
for women (and – at the same time - decided to start separation
proceedings) when the former prime minister of Italy attended to
young model Noemi Letizia's 18th birthday party in Naples.
Though
the story was never forgot, nobody knew exactly until what extent the
relationship between a minor girl and a elderly man she called “papi”
(when Noemi got 18, Silvio was 73) was inappropriate.
Rubygate: who knows the truth and who's interested in it?
Thursday, 4 April, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi's favourite belly dancer (and alleged prostitute) Ruby the Heart Stealer holds an emotional protest in front of Milan's tribunal (and raises angry reaction from other bunga-bunga women).
“The Ruby case: Are you not interested in the truth any more?” read on the signed carried by the curvaceous Ruby the Heartstealer (real name: Karima El Mahroug) as the young Moroccan staged a protest (this time properly dressed up) by reading a statement to the journalists.
Prosecutors state that Ruby had paid sex with Silvio Berlusconi when she was 17, and the billionaire is also accused of having abused of his position as prime minister, when he intervened with police after Karima was arrested because she was accused of stealing money from a friend.
Sat, 23 March, 2013 (Saint Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo). Apparently Silvio Berlusconi organised a package tour to Rome including show-off of unpresentable candidates, attacks to old enemies and a (unscheduled) strip tease.
“Tutti con Silvio per una nuova Italia” (“Everybody with Silvio, for a new Italy”) was the title of the gathering of the People of Liberty in the Square of the People in Rome, drawn on Twitter as #ConSilvio. Difficult to find a better setting. Though it's unclear how a new Italy could result from somebody who ruled the country for 10 out of the last 20 years, having been its prime minister four times. Anyhow.
Everybody loves Silvio
About 50,000 people showed up in the demonstration, according to Mr Berlusconi's opponents many of them where young pensioners (about 60-year-old, the typical target of
Mon, 18 March, 2013 (Saint Cyril of Jerusalem). Customs officers of the port of Venice find a container full of toilet paper portraying the former prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi.
Toilet rolls that smile at you
The news was first published by the local newspaper Il Gazzettino, that learned how the port of Venice's authorities informed the Public Prosecutor's office about the finding of a container full of toilet rolls with Silvio Berlusconi's photo printed on it (on any single sheet, to be more precisely, you can find a picture of the media tycoon).
As the newspaper acknowledged “heavy loads of goods with a low market value” might hide cigarettes of other smuggled goods, but this wasn't the case.
Fri, 22 March, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi is portrayed as a driver of a Ford Figo who “leaves his worries behind”, symbolised by Ruby the Heartstealer, Francesca Pascale and Nicole Minetti tied up and gagged in the boot of the car.
The infamous advert created for Ford India,
with Karima-Ruby, Francesca and Nicole
A drawing appearing on the Ford Figo's ad by Ford India Ltd shows three curvaceous women – namely belly dancer Karima El Mahroug aka Ruby the Heart Breaker, Silvio Berlusconi's girlfriend Francesca Pascale and (former) sweetheart Nicole Minetti – hands a feet tied, muzzled, in the rear booth of a red car, whilst the former Italian prime minister is sitting in front of the vehicle, at the wheel, smiling and showing the V sign.
«Leave your worries behind with Figo's extra-large boot» reads the claim on the bottom of the page, obviously referring to Silvio's headaches about bunga-bunga parties, sex scandal trials, and other matters related to women.
Not exactly something that Berlusconi would find funny – we presume – and not exactly something in a good taste – we might say – considering the poor record of India in terms of behaviour of men towards women.
Sat,
16 March, 2013. After leaving the hospital where he was cured for
an eye conditions Silvio Berlusconi returns to the Senate of
Italy, welcomed by protesters' boos and jeers
Facing
court trial both on tax fraud and sex charges for paying and under-age prostitute (Karima El Mahroug aka Ruby the Heart Stealer), Silvio Berlusconi
chose – at least this is prosecutor of the sex scandal proceedings,
Ilda Boccassini's theory – to seek refuge in hospital, with the
excuse (according to prosecution) of curing a form conjunctivitis called uveitis.
The new look of Silvio Berlusconi (attending to a session of the Senate of Italy)
In the
meanwhile Silvio's lawyers, who managed to see the former Italian
prime minister's «legitimate impediment» recognised, are trying A)
to move the proceedings to Brescia and B) to seek for a «legitimate
impediment» for themselves (for political reasons, since they have to attend to meetings and gatherings, being members of the PdL – People of Liberty party).
Manoeuvres
to gain time (according to the leftist prosecutors). But this isn't
the point.
The
point is that - finally - Silvio Berlusconi last Saturday had to leave
the hospital, in order to participate to a vote in the Senate, where
the speaker was about to be elected.
He was
showing off an unusual pair of sunglasses, proof of the eye condition
the prosecutors refused to believe.
Monday,
11 March, 2013 (Saint Leander of Seville). As the Vatican's cardinals
join the papal conclave a crowd of centre-right lawmakers protest
against Silvio Berlusconi going on trial on charges of paying for sex
with an ander-age girl and abusing of his power as PM.
The
plan A was to avoid the trial by sending a fax (a few faxes) stating
that Silvio Berlusconi conjunctivitis-caused sensitivity to light
(or uveitis, to be more precise, see our blog's post on the sunbject by clicking here) doesn't allow the former prime
minister of Italy to attend to the so called Rubygate sex scandal
trial Monday's session.
But it
didn't work out, because of «a Stalinist court that sent Nazi
doctors to examine Berlusconi,», said the Berlusconi's PdL (People
of Liberty) Party exponent's Fabrizio Cicchitto (who - by the way - is a former
Marxist-winger of the Italian Socialist Party; he might even know
something about Stalinism and Nazism, innit?). A "Stalinist court", which is "more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia", we might say, combining Cicchitto version with Silvio's opinion.
Souvenir photo of a "silent protest" in favour of Silvio Berlusconi. Can you spot anyone?
Anyhow.
The plan did not work out, so the staunch supporters of Silvio had to
do something, and they decided to go for a “silent protest”
(even though Silvio himself told them refrain from doing so... but did
he really meant it?).
Saturday,
9 March, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi takes refuge from Italian judiciary
in Milan hospital as two of his trials resume and the country gets
stuck in political deadlock.
Last
Saturday Silvio Berlusconi was expected to appear in court – the
Mediaset trial was on, and the Rubygate was also reaching its apex –
but his lawyers gave way to an «escalation of medical
certifications» (as prosecutor Ilda Boccassini put it) in order to
provide the former prime minister of Italy with a «legitimate
impediment», a lawful excuse not to attend.
Cicchitto: «a
Stalinist court that sent Nazi doctors to examine Berlusconi,»
What's
the matter with him? Uveitis, a kind of conjunctivitis that causes
sensitivity to light, headaches, blurred vision and other unpleasant
symptoms. Not many chances that the judiciary and Silvio Belusconi
will get to see eye to eye... The media tycoon has being treated at
Milan's San Raffaele hospital.
It
partially worked, as Silvio's request was accepted by the Ruby sex
scandal case court, but was rejected by «a Stalinist court that sent
Nazi doctors to examine Berlusconi,», as Fabrizio Cicchitto - a top
official in the People of Freedom party (PDL) - put it, and found out
that Berlusconi could easily attend to a trial, perhaps wearing a
fashionable pair of sunglasses. (Translator's note: Historians might
find it remarkable that Nazis and Bolsheviks finally found a way to
join their goals, just for the sake of bringing Silvio down...).
Thu,
7 March, 2013 (Saints Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs). Silvio
Berlusconi collects another jail sentence as the Unipol case ends,
even though the former premier's lawyers stated that «the evidence
against [SB] is insufficient.».
Not
long ago Silvio Berlusconi could boast of never being sentenced to a single day of prison in
spite of the number of trials – more than one hundred – where he
has been indicted, for a reason or another (but mainly due to the
aggressiveness of the left-wing magistrates, according to the former
prime minister of Italy).
One of Silvio's trials
This statement isn't true any more, since in October 2012 he
collected the first 4-year sentence at the Mediaset-trial (a decision that made him rethink his retirement from politics...), and in
March 2013 he managed to gain another year in prison, due to the
Unipol case (when an insurance company – Unipol – takeover bid by
Rome's bank Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in 2005 led to the
resignation of the governor of the Bank of Italy, Antonio Fazio).
Monday,
4 March, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi has been running a prostitution
ring, according to prosecutors' final arguments in the last episode
of the Rubygate sex scandal related proceedings.
Karima El-Mahroug, aka Ruby the Heart Stealer
Silvio
Berlusconi is on trial – he managed to postpone the proceeding, due
to the general elections, but now he is running out of excuses... -,
since he is accused of soliciting an under-age prostitute (the
Moroccan Karima el-Mahroug, also known as Ruby Rubacuori i.e. Ruby
Heart Stealer) and for abuse of power, for having managed to free the
aforementioned Ruby Heart Stealer from the strong arm of the law,
and ushered her into the hands of Milan's municipality's councillor (party-organizer and part-time bikini-model) Nicole Minetti, by illicit means (amongst them he apparently said to the police
that Karima-Ruby - apparently - was the granddaughter of Egypt's former dictator
Hosni Mubarak).
Silvio Berlusconi heading to the court
By
doing this, Silvio – who at the time was Italy's prime minister –
recruited the Moroccan belly-dancer (and alleged call girl) into the
bunga-bunga army, a bunch of young women - the bunga-bunga girls - to be used for entertainment
during parties in his villa in Arcore. The women used to get a bed
where to sleep, 2,500 euro a month ($3,250 or £2,160), plus gifts
and presents in case of birthdays or name days.
The
prosecutor – Antonio Sangermano – said that Karima El-Mahroug
(who was 17, when first attended a so-called bunga-bunga party) was
"an integral part" of a "complex prostitution ring".
In the next days the prosecutors will publish the requested sentence,
the defence will reply on 11 March, and on 18 March the trail will
end with a verdict.
All
this is hardly likely to help the difficult relationship between the
former premier of Italy and the Italian Judiciary, which – according
to Silvio Berlusconi – is «more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia,».
