The Siena public prosecutor's office in Tuscany on Thursday (February 13th) demanded four years and two months in prison against the ex-head of the Italian government, Silvio Berlusconi, accused of witness tampering, media reports said. This trial, called Ruby-ter, is the umpteenth part of the " Rubygate " scandal and the famous "bunga-bunga" evenings that Silvio Berlusconi, 83, organized with prostitutes in his luxurious villa near Milan (north).
Under Italian law, the court in the city where the first payment to purchase favorable testimony was made becomes the court responsible for hearing the case, in this case that of Siena, but Mr. Berlusconi is being prosecuted for similar facts also in Milan, Rome or Turin.
In the case of Siena, he is accused of having paid a pianist from that city, Danilo Mariani, for the latter to give false testimony concerning the " bunga-bunga " evenings in which he participated as a musician. The prosecution requested four years and six months against Mr. Mariani.
The 3 chapters of " Rubygate "
The first Ruby trial, better known as " Rubygate ", named after the young Moroccan Karima El-Mahroug, known as Ruby, and the " bunga-bunga " evenings, earned Mr. Berlusconi a conviction at first instance, in June 2013 , to seven years in prison for prostitution of a minor and abuse of power. The media magnate was however definitively acquitted in March 2015 by the Court of Cassation in this section.
The Ruby-bis trial concerns two relatives of Silvio Berlusconi accused of providing him with young prostitutes for his parties, sentenced on appeal to 4 years and 7 months in prison for one and to 2 years and 10 months for the other.
The Ruby-ter trial relates generally to the payments made by Silvio Berlusconi to various people, young women and musicians who participated in his evenings, in exchange for their silence.
According to the prosecution, the “ benevolence ” of these young women cost Silvio Berlusconi ten million euros between 2011 and 2015, including seven million for Ruby alone, a minor when she participated in the famous evenings: cash, gifts, cars, provision of accommodation, payment of bills and medical expenses.