Berlusconi admits giving Ruby $87k to 'save her from prostitution'

4/11/2011 11:11:46 AM

MILAN -- A defiant Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi admitted Monday to giving â‚¬60,000 ($87,000) to the 17-year-old woman at the center of the sex case against him, but said it was to save her from a life of prostitution.
Berlusconi told reporters outside a Milan court, ahead of a separate appearance on fraud charges against his company Mediaset, that he gave Karima el Mahroug cash to help her, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.
He said he gave the young woman "money to avoid prostitution" when he found out she wanted to start a beauty salon and laser hair-removal treatment center with a friend. Berlusconi said he offered â‚¬45,000 to Mahroug, a Moroccan dancer also known by her stage name "Ruby The Heart-Stealer."

"Instead she said â‚¬60,000 and I gave this money so she could avoid any need ... to prostitute herself, and to bring her instead in the opposite direction," he said.
Berlusconi added that his direct intervention to spring Mahroug from police custody on theft accusations in May last year was to "avoid a diplomatic incident." His aides told police at the time he thought she was the granddaughter of ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.
"I am always courteous and asked for information, worried about situations that could lead to a diplomatic incident. Later I was told that she was not Egyptian, and dropped everything," Berlusconi said, before adding the sex charges against him were "laughable, idiotic and unfounded."
Berlusconi also criticized the use of telephone taps, that helped build the sex case against him.
"No civilized country would use telephone tapping as it can be manipulated," he said.
Berlusconi's trial on charges of paying an underage prostitute for sex and abuse of power was postponed last week until May 31. He faces up to three years in prison on the sex charge and 12 years on the abuse of power charge if convicted.
Berlusconi was at the Palace of Justice in Milan to challenge charges of fraud relating to his business empire Mediaset on Monday. He said outside court that "the prosecutors are working against the country," and denied the charges.
The billionaire media tycoon has faced a litany of legal cases since he entered politics in the 1990s, but has so far managed to be exonerated, or the trials against him have expired.

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