Women describe Berlusconi’s parties at prostitution trial

Not for the first time in recent years, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has featured in a court case relative to the "after hours" hospitality at his private Rome and Milan homes.

In a trial in Bari this week, businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini and six other people are charged with having promoted prostitution because, between 2008 and 2009, they organised for 26 different young women to attend parties in various Berlusconi residences.

To a certain extent, this trial involves a replay of the infamous Rubygate trial which in June 2013 found Mr Berlusconi guilty of “abuse of office” and having underage sex with Karim “Ruby” El Mahroug, then aged 17.

That judgment was later overturned by a January 2014 appeal court ruling which acquitted the media tycoon.

At issue then and now is the exact nature of Mr Berlusconi’s parties. Were they, as his defence always claimed, “elegant dinner parties” or were they, as various participants have reported, “bunga, bunga” nights of multiple sexual encounters?

Giulia Mascellino, who attended the Berlusconi parties, this week told the Bari court: "We all knew that the situation at those dinners was a bit ambiguous and that if someone was willing to stay behind after dinner and have sex with prime minister Berlusconi, then they would be paid more."

She claims to have been at a party at Berlusconi’s Palazzo Grazioli in Rome on September 23rd 2008, after which she and three other women were paid €1,000 (between them) for their “participation”.

Another witness, Clarissa Campironi, told the court: "I attended a party in Arcore (Milan), as well as one at Palazzo Grazioli on October 16th 2008. It was there that I understood what the whole nature of those parties really was since there were too many girls being very friendly to prime minister Berlusconi and wearing very sexy dresses, just like show-girls on TV. There was one woman who sat on the prime minister's knee and hugged him. She was a big woman with a very low-cut dress."

Ms Campironi said the evening was “like a one-man show” in which an exuberant Mr Berlusconi told stories and jokes.

Ms Campironi also told the court that, even though no one made any “strange proposals” to her, she had felt very uncomfortable throughout the evening.

Actor George Clooney was at party at Palazzo Grazioli on September 5th, 2008, according to witness Roberta Nigro. She said it was a party where "some people were dancing and some were chatting". At around 3am, as people went home, Mr Berlusconi offered her and two other women a bed for the night. She said that she, her friend Sonia Carpentone and another girl chatted with the prime minister until 06.30am when they left.

Ms Nigro also told the court that she had been to other parties at Berlusconi’s homes in Rome and Milan, adding that for some months Mr Berlusconi had paid her rent in a house in the Milano 2 neighbourhood.

The trial is to resume on February 16th and on March 2nd Mr Berlusconi, who on Tuesday was at a reception at the presidential palace in Rome to mark the inauguration of Italian president Sergio Mattarella, is serving a one-year sentence for tax fraud by his Mediaset TV company.