Rome - Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi could face a new trial over the “bunga bunga” affair after prosecutors said on Tuesday they had found evidence that he bribed witnesses who testified in his defence during the original court case.
In March, after a first instance ruling and two appeal trials, Berlusconi was cleared of charges of soliciting sex from a minor and abusing his position of power to cover up the scandal, mainly due to lack of evidence.
The five-year case centred around Karima El Mahroug, a nightclub dancer also known as Ruby Heart Stealer, who attended night-time parties at Berlusconi’s villa in 2010 when he was premier and she was 17.
According to prosecutors in Milan, Berlusconi paid more than 10 million euros (11.2 million dollars) to scores of showgirls who were invited to the parties and later questioned by prosecutors and summoned in court, including 7 million euros to El Mahroug.
The “bunga bunga” affair is named after an underground room in Berlusconi’s villa.
According to court testimonies, showgirls performed lap dances there, sometimes wearing masks of famous people like US President Barack Obama.
The bribes started in November 2011 and continued well into 2015, prosecutors alleged in a document where they formally notified Berlusconi, El Mahroug and 32 others suspects that they had finished investigations on them.
Such a step normally precedes a prosecution request for the suspects to be sent to trial.
A judge will then have to confirm whether the evidence collected is solid enough to warrant the start of a court case.
In the Italian legal system, perverting the court of justice through corruption carries a minimum penalty of four years’ imprisonment and a maximum one of 10 years.
The court that conducted the first instance trial ordered the investigations over the alleged bribery in 2013, after hearing defence witnesses give apparently identical answers and admit to receiving monthly allowance payments from Berlusconi.
Berlusconi, a 78-year-old media and football tycoon who led three governments between 1994 and 2011 and still leads the conservative Forza Italia party, has had several run-ins with the law during his career.
He finished serving a community service sentence in March linked to a tax fraud conviction that triggered his expulsion from parliament, while next week a Naples tribunal is due to deliver a verdict in a case that sees him accused of bribing an opposition lawmaker.
DPA