Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to 7 years in prison for allegedly paying for sex and abusing his authority while in office.
Media tycoon and ex-Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi was found guilty as charged for paying an underage prostitute for sex. Berlusconi has been sentenced to seven years in prison as well as being banned from ever holding public office in the future.
Berlusconi’s trial has been nicknamed the “bunga bunga” trail, after the ex-prime ministers wild parties held in his villa just outside of Milan. Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name as “Ruby the Heartstealer”, has been pinned by authorities to allegedly attending a total of 13 of Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” parties. He is also being charged with abuse of power, for when he made a call to Milan police station in 2010 to have the Moroccan nightclub dancer released from custody on a theft charge. At the time she was a minor at the age of 17.
Berlusconi tried desperately to hush up his relationship with Mrs. El Mahroug. On the occasion in which he called Milan police to have her released, he claimed that she was the granddaughter of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and that her release was absolutely imperative to avoid conflict with Cairo.
The term “bunga bunga”, Berlusconi claims, is coined from a “politically incorrect” joke about a bunch of left-wing politicians captured by African cannibals.
None of the attendees to the infamous “bunga bunga” parties will drop the slightest whisper about anything that went down at the parties to authorities. The prosecutors, however, believe that among other things women performed strip teases and erotic dances on stage. It is said that Berlusconi gave the women tens of thousands of Euros each time to attend the parties, which police think was to pay for sex. Both parties deny that the money was for sex.
Berlusconi served as prime minister three times, from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006, and from 2008 to 2011. Outside of his political career, Silvio Berlusconi is well known for broadcasting in Milan. In 1973, he began “Telemilano”, which was in the beginning just a small cable company. Fininvest, founded in 1978, is Berlusconi’s first media group which has expanded into a country wide television network.