An Italian court has
denied the request of
former PM Silvio
Berlusconi to halt a trial
where he is accused of
having sex with an under- age prostitute. The court in Milan also decided
it did not need to hear
testimony from the woman -
dancer Karima El Mahroug. Mr Berlusconi's lawyers
requested the trial be halted
while he runs in the current
election campaign. Both he and Ms Mahroug -
better known by her stage
name "Ruby Heartstealer" -
have denied ever having sex. Mr Berlusconi stepped down
from a third term as prime
minister in November 2011,
when he was replaced by the
technocrat Mario Monti. His People of Freedom (PDL)
party is hoping to form a
centre-right coalition
government with another
party but have not named a
candidate for prime minister. On 7 January, an ally of Mr
Berlusconi's said that he
would not return as prime
minister even if his party won
the elections next month. Mr Berlusconi however has
not explicitly ruled himself
out of running the
premiership, saying the
candidate for the post "will be
decided if we win". Rejection Lawyer Niccolo Ghedini said
Mr Berlusconi would be too
busy campaigning to follow
the case or attend court - and
also feared the trial could
influence the election. But judges rejected the
application. Prosecutors have accused the
defence of trying to prolong,
and now delay, the trial to
avoid a verdict before the
election, at the end of
February. Ms Mahroug had arrived at the
trial to give testimony for the
defence. She has been called twice
before, but failed to show up,
apparently because she was
on holiday in Mexico. Mr Berlusconi, now 76, is
accused of paying to have sex
with Ms Mahroug in 2010
when she was 17. Sex with a
prostitute who is under 18 is a
crime in Italy. The billionaire media mogul
has admitted sending Ms
Mahroug money - but insists
he was just making gifts to a
friend in need. Abuse of power Prosecutors say they had sex
on 13 occasions. He denies
having had sex with her, and
testified that, in any case, she
had told him she was 24. Ms Mahroug also denies having
sex with him - or being a
prostitute. Mr Berlusconi is also accused of
abuse of power, for
intervening after Ms Mahroug
was briefly held by police
over theft claims. He allegedly
urged police officers to release her, telling them, falsely, that
she was a granddaughter of
former Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak. He admits making the phone
call, but denies putting police
under pressure - and testified
that Ms Mahroug had told him
she was related to Mubarak. Mr Berlusconi faces up to 15
years in jail if found guilty. This is one of many cases that
have dogged the former
prime minister. In the most
recent, he was convicted of
tax fraud in connection with
the purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset TV
company. He was sentenced to a year in
prison and barred from
holding office for five years -
though this will not be
enforced until his appeal is
complete. Source www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21010660?

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