MILAN, Italy – Aspiring Italian starlets and Oscar-winning actor George Clooney are being called to make appearances in Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s trial on charges he paid for sex with an underage prostitute, then tried to use his influence to cover it up.
Unlike Berlusconi’s other trials, the one that opens Wednesday puts the premier’s personal life under scrutiny, and a conviction could end his political career. TV crews from around the world will be on hand for the opening session – even though Berlusconi himself is not attending.
"This time it is not about offshore, secret accounts and tax havens but about sex, money and power," the Turin-daily La Stampa wrote this week.
Berlusconi is skipping Wednesday’s session, citing earlier commitments to attend ceremonies marking the two-year anniversary of an earthquake in central Italy that killed more than 300 people.
Even without his presence, media interest is feverish, and the Milan court overseeing the trial is holding the opening session – reserved mainly for formalities like setting future trial dates – in an auditorium usually used for ceremonial occasions in order to accommodate media.
Outside, Berlusconi supporters have pledged to maintain a vigil on a traffic island opposite the courthouse where dozens have gathered for recent court hearings in three other pending Berlusconi cases, all involving corruption and fraud allegations.
Prosecutors allege Berlusconi paid a 17-year-old Moroccan girl known by her nickname Ruby for sex at his villa, then personally called police to have her released from custody when she was picked up for theft out of concern that she would reveal their relationship.
Both the 74-year-old premier and Ruby, whose real name is Karima el-Mahroug, have each separately denied having sex.
The underage prostitution charge carries a possible prison term of six months to three years. The abuse of power charge is even more dangerous: it carries a sentence of four to 12 years, and if Berlusconi is sentenced to more than five, he would be barred from ever again holding public office.
Legal experts and oddsmakers alike agree that the case will be hard to prove.
Bologna law professor Carlo Guarnieri says that convictions will require stronger evidence than what he has seen so far reported in newspapers, consisting mostly of wiretaps that allegedly place Ruby at Berlusconi’s villa outside of Milan, as well as testimony from a bevy of would-be starlets who participated in the raucous parties.
In the abuse of power case, prosecutors must prove that there was an implication of a threat of retaliation, he said.
"This is a case which is difficult to sustain in court. It is very likely that all these people involved will tell very different versions," Guarnieri said.
Ironclad evidence would be something like a videotape, Guarnieri said. So far, no reports of such has surfaced.
Prosecutors allege that Berlusconi paid for sex 13 times with Ruby, who has since turned 18, during parties that started with dinner, then generated into seminude dancing after which Berlusconi would choose a sex partner.
A new poll out Tuesday, shows Berlusconi’s popularity in steady decline. The premier enjoys just 33 per cent approval, compared with 50 per cent last May and down from nearly 36 per cent in January and 41 per cent in September, after the scandal broke.
The poll by the ISPO agency for Corriere della Sera of 1,868 Italians from March 30-31 has a margin of error of 3.5 per cent. Pollster Renato Mannheimer wrote that the erosion of public opinion can’t be pinned on any one event, but on various factors.
Berlusconi’s leadership is under challenge from his unruly coalition partners, the Northern League. Italy has also failed to garner concrete support from its European partners to combat the influx of migrants fleeing political instability in northern Africa.
In the face of sliding popularity, Berlusconi has said he intends to attend this and the other court cases against him in Milan.The premier showed up last week at a closed-door preliminary hearing in a tax fraud case, his first court appearance in more than eight years. The only images broadcast from the hearing showed a smiling premier greeting a hundred supporters who have set up camp outside of the courthouse.
Ruby herself is being called as a witness for both the defence and the prosecution.
Clooney was named on the list of defence witnesses because Ruby once said she had seen the Hollywood star at one of Berlusconi’s parties; the actor says he met with Berlusconi only once to get aid for Darfur. It will be up to the panel of three judges, all women, to decide if the testimony would be pertinent.
While his legal team works on their defence, they also are trying to get the trial moved out of the Milan tribunal, which Berlusconi maintains is politically slanted against him.
Parliament is expected to vote Tuesday on the motion, which would leave it up to the constitutional court to decide if the jurisdiction should be transferred to the Tribunal of Ministers, which deals with offences committed by public officials in the execution of their duties.
The court has no legal obligation to suspend the trial pending a decision, but could decide to do so to demonstrate respect for the higher court, Guarnieri said.
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