Orlando Sentinel
Wiretapped dancer says Berlusconi told her to lie
A file photo shows Karima El Mahroug of Morocco posing during a photocall at the Karma disco in Milan (STR New, REUTERS /January 14, 2011)
James MackenzieReuters
10:54 a.m. EDT, April 23, 2012
ROME (Reuters) – The Moroccan-born nightclub dancer at the center of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi‘s sex trial told friends he was ready to pay millions for her silence, according to wiretaps published on Monday.
“He’s crazy. He’s crazy for me at the moment,” Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name of Ruby, told a friend in a conversation recorded by investigators in October 2010 and available in audio files on the website of the daily La Repubblica newspaper.
The wiretaps contain no substantial new revelations about the lurid “bunga bunga” scandal which overshadowed Berlusconi’s final months in office but reinforce allegations that he made frantic efforts to quell news about his relationship with Ruby.
The “Rubygate” affair, most spectacular of the many sexual scandals surrounding Berlusconi, is particularly dangerous for him because it centers on the allegation that he had paid El Mahroug for sex while she was still a minor – a criminal offence.
