via The Guardian, Silvio Berlusconi investigated in teenage prostitution case:
Silvio Berlusconi has been formally placed under investigation on suspicion of paying for sex with a 17-year old girl, according to a statement issued today by prosecutors in Milan.
He was further accused of abusing his position as Italy’s prime minister by bringing pressure to bear on the police to cover up his alleged relationship with the girl, who was working as a prostitute. The two alleged offences carry sentences totalling 15 years in jail.
The statement said Berlusconi, who has not been charged, had been invited to present himself for questioning. The prosecutors said he had been formally made a suspect on 21 December, but the news only broke today on the website of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Berlusconi’s legal team said today the investigation was “absurd and groundless” and the allegations raised had already been denied by the main figures in the case. They called the inquiry a “very serious interference in the private life” of the prime minister.
The reported investigation concerns Karima el-Mahroug, otherwise known as Ruby Rubacuori or Ruby Heartstealer, a then 17-year-old Moroccan girl who told investigators last year that she had attended parties at Berlusconi’s villa near Milan. One of these, she was reported to have said, ended in an erotic game known to participants as “bunga bunga”.
This is one of those rare moments when I can hardly contain my rage. Those of us who follow news from the European Union closely have been painfully aware of Berlusconi’s xenophobia and harsh anti immigrant positions. He has incited violence against minorities in Italy, a country with a growing number of hate crimes against immigrants; he has passed laws that make it increasingly difficult for immigrants to legally live there, etc. Apparently, his xenophobia is only surpassed by his misogyny, as he seems to have no issue getting involved with an underage girl from the very same minority that he regularly vilifies.
He cannot even be consistent in his corrupted principles?
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