June 18, 2013

Ruby, key witness in Berlusconi trial, in Mexico

BY: AP Staff Writer DECEMBER 11, 2012 | MODIFIED: DECEMBER 11, 2012 AT 6:35 PM
Leave a comment

ROME (AP) — The Moroccan woman at the center of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's pay-for-sex trial has turned up in Mexico after missing a court date and becoming entangled in Italy's latest political drama.

News agency ANSA reported Tuesday that Karima el-Mahroug, known as Ruby, notified her attorney of her whereabouts after reading that her absence Monday had sparked a minor uproar in court. Attorney Paola Boccardi informed the court that Ruby wasn't expected back until next month.

Berlusconi is accused of paying Ruby, then 17, for sex during his notorious "bunga bunga" parties, and using his office to cover it up. Both deny the accusations.

Prosecutor Ilda Boccassini accused Berlusconi's defense of keeping Ruby away to delay a verdict until after February elections, in which Berlusconi is running. Berlusconi's attorney denied the accusation.

View article comments Leave a comment

More from washingtonexaminer.com

From the Weekly Standard

  • Frack to the Future

    Williston, N.D.

    Read More...
  • Downsize Ike

    The beleaguered Eisenhower Memorial Commission holds its next public gathering later this month, and before its members duck-walk into the hearing room, huddled in a hoplite phalanx against a...

    Read More...
  • The Lesson of Kermit Gosnell

    What was the lesson of the Kermit Gosnell trial? Since the Philadelphia doctor was convicted last month of murdering three born-alive infants, two competing viewpoints have emerged.

    Read More...