ROME – Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced more pressure to resign on Thursday after magistrates issued new documents with fresh details of erotic parties, some with under-age girls, and of his gifts to participants. The centre-left opposition said the new documents made his position “untenable” and said he should resign willingly or that his conservative allies should put pressure on him to step aside for the good of the country.
The 227 pages of new documents were sent by Milan magistrates to parliament on Wednesday night and chunks were leaked to Italian media, which published excerpts on Thursday. They say that a second woman who attended the parties was under-age at the time, in addition to a Moroccan dancer at the centre of the inquiry who was 17 when some of the parties were held.
They also show that a key Berlusconi associate who is being investigated on suspicion of procuring prostitutes is privately turning against him and made disparaging remarks about his physique and age in phone conversations taped by police. The magistrates have so far sent more than 600 pages of documents to parliament to support their request to search the office of Berlusconi’s accountant, who is suspected of dispensing money and gifts to the women.
Asked about the new leaks, Berlusconi responded late on Wednesday: “I have nothing to say. It (the investigation) is scandalous.” Excerpts in Italian media of transcripts of police interrogations of the women and phone wiretaps describing wild parties emerged just two days after Berlusconi’s lawyers filed documents insisting the encounters were just friendly dinners.
In verbatim transcripts published by at least two Italian news agencies and several newspapers, a woman named Maria told magistrates that in June 2010, a Berlusconi associate invited her to a party at the prime minister’s villa near Milan. “After the dinner, the prime minister said ‘now we are going to do some bunga-bunga,” the term magistrates say the participants used to describe their parties.
HARD SAMBA; Maria says she did a belly dance while another young woman walked around the room dressed only in a bra and panties. Maria told magistrates a Brazilian woman wearing thong underwear danced a “hard version of a samba” as the men watched. “Even the other girls danced, showing their breasts and their bottoms and they all went near the prime minister who touched them in their intimate parts,” the news agencies and newspapers quote Maria as telling magistrates.
At least one other man at that party also touched the women, according to Maria’s account. The Milan prosecutors say Berlusconi paid for sex with prostitutes at the parties, including a teenage nightclub dancer whose stage name is “Ruby the Heart Stealer”. She said she received 7,000 euros after attending one party but denies having sex with Berlusconi.
Berlusconi denies any wrongdoing and says he has never paid for sex. He says politically motivated leftist magistrates are bent on destroying him and he has refused to face questioning. When police searched the apartment of one of the women they investigated, they found money and jewelry, which she told the magistrates were gifts from Berlusconi, according to the leaks.
Police also found a notebook in which the woman, who was under-age at the time of some of the parties, recorded her visits to the villa and the amount of money she received.
