Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was found not guilty on Wednesday of witness tampering in a trial related to sexually charged “bunga bunga” parties he held at his villa near Milan while in office.
The six-year trial is the third and probably the last in a scandal that made headlines around the world in 2010 when Berlusconi, as acting prime minister, faced charges that he paid to have sex with an underage girl. He was ultimately cleared.
In the third trial, Berlusconi faced charges of bribing witnesses to lie in previous trials. Prosecutors had sought a six-year prison sentence for him, along with $10.7 million in damages. Twenty-eight other people, including the woman at the center of the scandal, Karima el-Mahroug, were also found not guilty on Wednesday.
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“I am very happy,” el-Mahroug told reporters after hearing the verdict. “I just need a moment to absorb this fact, to believe it.”
Berlusconi was not present when the verdict was read. His lawyer, Federico Cecconi, called the verdict, which formally determined that no crime had been committed, “the most complete acquittal we could achieve.”
Karima El Mahroug, also known as Ruby Rubacuori, one of the girls who attended the infamous Bunga Bunga parties, presents her book to prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano, right, in Italy on February 15, 2023. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
The previous trials took place when Berlusconi still wielded considerable power as prime minister, raising concerns among security officials that he had made himself vulnerable to extortion by hosting young women in his villa.
The 86-year-old three-time former prime minister is currently the head of the third party in Italy’s right-wing ruling coalition, whose popularity has dropped significantly from its heyday to around 6% now, according to polls.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed Wednesday’s verdict, saying it “puts an end to a long judicial matter that had important repercussions on Italian political and institutional life.”
The Meloni administration this week took the step of removing the government as an aggrieved party in the case, to avoid creating an awkward political dynamic in the case of guilty verdicts.
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Berlusconi’s defense described the dinners, dating from 2010, as elegant soirees; Prosecutors said they were sex-driven gatherings that women were paid to attend and where witnesses described showgirls stripping provocatively for the then Italian leader.
Both Berlusconi and el-Mahroug, who was 17 at the time, have denied having sex with each other, and el-Mahroug, now 30, says she never worked as a prostitute.
