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Italy: Magistrates ask to quiz conservative politician in prostitution probe

Rome, 26 Jan. (AKI) - Italian prosecutors on Wednesday summoned a regional councillor for prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative ruling party for questioning on allegations that Berlusconi used an underage Moroccan prostitute.

Prosecutors in Milan, want to question Lombardy regional councillor Nicole Minetti on 1 February over allegations that she procured prostitutes for erotic parties and sex with Berlusconi at his home in Arcore near Milan and elsewhere. Prosecutors supported their request, submitted to the Italian parliament, with several hundred pages of documentation, including text and other messages, financial payments from Berlusconi's financial administrator Giuseppe Spinelli, and wiretap transcripts. Minetti's lawyer said it had not yet been decided if Minetti would be questioned by prosecutors next Tuesday. Berlusconi fielded Minetti as a candidate for his People of Freedom party in Italy's March 2010 region elections. She met the former showgirl and newly qualified dental hygienist when treated him for two broken teeth and facial injuries after he was attacked at a political rally. She also appeared a dancer on a TV show aired by one of the billionaire media tycoon's channels, called Colorado Cafe, and on another programme called Scorie, which is an Italian version of Candid Camera. Minetti is one of the women named in the media as 74-year-old Berlusconi's possible girlfriend after he claimed in a recent video message that he had been in a "steady relationship" for the past 18 months since he split from his second wife. Minetti is among several Berlusconi associates who are suspected of of procuring prostitutes for Berlusconi, including teenage Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby, who was allegedly17 when she spent at least eight nights at Berlusconi's villa in Arcore last year. She and Berlusconi deny they have ever had sex and she has claimed he "never laid a finger" on her. A panel of the Italian parliament is currently considering a request sent on 14 January by Milan prosecutors spearheading the prostitution probe for permission to search Spinelli's offices in Milan. The prosecutors supplied a 389 page dossier of evidence gathered on the case. Berlusconi refused to be questioned by the prosecutors last week over the allegations he had sex with a juvenile prostitute and abused his powers of office by pressuring police to release El Mahroug from custody last May over an unrelated theft charge. He claims the allegations against him are "absurd" and part of a plot against him by subsersive leftwing prosecutors who should be "punished". He has said it would be "mad" for him to bow to opposition demands that he resign, but has also received criticism from the Catholic Church and the Vatican over the prostitution allegations. On Wednesday he said the furore would blow over and he vowed he would remain premier. He told journalists the new dossier againt Minetti was "scandalous". Read more at www.adnkronos.com

 

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