Silvio Berlusconi and the 1-year prison sentence

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).

Has Silvio Berlusconi been running a “prostitution ring”?

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,».

Berlusconi and the topless menace

Sunday, February 24, 2013. Three half naked women try to prevent Silvio Berlusconi from reaching the polling station, supporting rumours that females “just throw themselves at him”.

The sudden attack of three topless Ukrainian women caused some concern amongst the law enforcement officers escorting Silvio Berlusconi to the polling station (general election take place on Sunday 24 and Monday 25 February in Italy), but the former prime minister of Italy surely did not find himself in a totally unusual situation (having dealt with an entire bunga-bunga army for quite a while), and he did not budge.

FEMEN activist grabbed by Berlusconi's escort

After the first puzzlement, the half-nude women were quickly pinned down in the falling snow, detained by police and then hastily dragged away screaming, creating quite a chaotic scene (you can see it on the video on our YouTube channel) as people stood in queue to cast their vote at Milan's school building.