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Berlusconi sex trial won be halted for Italian election
MILAN Milan court on Monday rejected a bid by former premier Silvio Berlusconi to halt his sexforhire trial for Italy general election campaign, a ruling that makes a verdict likely before the February vote.
Berlusconi lawyer accused the court of heavily in the Italian political campaign by refusing to suspend the trial so Berlusconi can dedicate himself to campaigning for his centreright coalition.
verdict will most certainly come before the election. It seems to me this is the clear intent of the court, defence lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told reporters. doesn bother us, but it should bother citizens since it is obvious that it will impact the electoral campaign.
Prosecutors accused Ghedini of merely seeking to delay a verdict in the nearly twoyearold trial, which started when Berlusconi was still in office. He resigned some seven months later, making room for Mario Monti technical government, as the sovereign debt crisis threatened to engulf Italy.
Despite his legal woes and sex scandal, Berlusconi centreright coalition has been gaining in the polls since he actively began campaigning. Berlusconi, 76, also has been boosted by combative televised debates with journalistic critics.
Berlusconi is accused of having paid for sex with a Moroccan woman, Karima elMahroug, when she was 17, during racy bunga parties with attractive young women at his villa near Milan, and then using his influence to cover it up.
Both he and elMahroug have denied having sexual relations.
Berlusconi has apologized for hosting the parties, saying he was lonely after splitting from his second wife. Veronica Laria left him in 2009, citing alleged dalliances with young women.
ElMahroug, 20, better known as Ruby, made her first appearance in court on Monday, where she was called by the defence to testify. The court had ordered her to return from a trip abroad and fined her the equivalent of $270 after she failed twice to show up. But Berlusconi lawyers changed their strategy and decided to renounce her testimony, saying they wanted to another development in the trial that interferes with the serenity of the election campaign.
ElMahroug lawyer, Paola Boccardi, said her client wasn angry that she didn have to testify,[url=http://nikefree.mobilejeti.com]nike free[/url], just that she wasn heard. She wore a dark parka with fur trim, Ugg boots and carried a fashionable Louis Vuitton handbag. The judges thanked her for appearing.
Ghedini had filed a motion to suspend the proceeding, citing the demands of Italy election campaign. The prosecution opposed the request, arguing that Berlusconi was neither the formal head of his party nor its official candidate for premier, and that he has infrequently shown up for trial anyway, as is his right.
In their ruling, the judges said Berlusconi absences for a political campaign were a personal choice and couldn be compared with having a parliamentary obligation, which has been accepted as a legitimate reason to delay a trial.
Ghedini told reporters that the campaign and Berlusconi role in vetting a list of nearly 1,000 candidates was directly related to the parliament and great political and institutional relevance. Berlusconi has long accused Milan magistrates of mounting politically inspired campaign against him, an allegation they deny.
Berlusconi faces two other cases in Milan, including the appeal set to begin Friday of his conviction for tax fraud and fouryear sentence last October. Ghedini said he will seek hearingbyhearing delays in the pending trials citing Berlusconi election commitments.
As the trial nears its close, Ghedini said he wanted to call six other witnesses on his list who hadn yet appeared, including actor George Clooney, Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo and elMahroug mother.
Clooney has said he was approached by Berlusconi team to testify about the bunga parties, but says he only visited the premier residence once to seek aid for Darfur and declined an invitation to stay.
Ronaldo and his lawyers have reportedly denied the Portuguese forward was even in the same city as elMahroug, much less had any personal contact.
reports are completely false. I do not know the woman that they are talking about. I have never met her and never got together with her. On December 29, 2009, I was in Madrid training with the team, Cristiano Ronaldo said in a press release last February.