In the affair surrounding his "Bunga-Bunga" parties, Silvio Berlusconi is linked, among other things, with the prostitution of minors - but he is acquitted. A third process now also ends positively for the politician. Prime Minister Meloni is pleased.
Silvio Berlusconi has been acquitted of corruption and witness bribery charges in the corruption trial surrounding his so-called "Bunga-Bunga" parties with young women. A court in Milan ruled that the former Italian prime minister and 28 other accused were innocent. As in the first two cases in the affair, Berlusconi escapes a conviction and prison sentence this time too.
The judges found it proven that Berlusconi and the other defendants - mostly young women - did not commit the crimes they were accused of. According to the public prosecutor, the 86-year-old had paid the women to tell untruths in the first trials. In those proceedings, Berlusconi was accused of abuse of office and promotion of prostitution by minors, but was then acquitted for lack of evidence.
According to the Ansa news agency, the scandalous entrepreneur and member of parliament achieved an acquittal of the best possible kind, summed up his lawyer. "We are extremely satisfied." Berlusconi was congratulated by the coalition partners in the right-wing government, above all Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. "This is excellent news," she said after the acquittal.
Meloni had already decided on Monday that the government would withdraw as a joint plaintiff and not want any compensation from Berlusconi. In 2017, the then centre-left government entered the process. In the spring of 2022, the lawyer for Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office demanded damages of 10.5 million euros from Berlusconi because his behavior had brought Italy into "worldwide discredit".
The trial is dubbed "Ruby three" (Ruby ter), after one of the escorts from back then, who called herself Ruby Rubacuori (Ruby heartthrob) and was 17 at the time of the celebrations at Berlusconi's villa. The native Moroccan, whose real name is Karima el Mahroug, was also a defendant in court and said after the acquittal: "The nightmare is over."
