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Silvio Berlusconi To Stand Trial

Jetboogieman

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Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been indicted to stand trial on charges of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute and abuse of power.

Examining judge Cristina Di Censo said the process would start on 6 April, after prosecutors in Milan asked for an immediate trial.

Mr Berlusconi denies paying for sex with Karima El Mahroug when she was 17.

He also rejects claims that he abused his power by seeking her release when she was detained in another case.

He has called the accusations "groundless" and dismissed the case as a farce.

Mr Berlusconi does, however, acknowledge that he called the police while she was being held on suspicion of theft.

He said he was doing a favour for the then-Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, because Mr Berlusconi was told the girl was Mr Mubarak's granddaughter.

Ms Mahroug, widely known as Ruby and now aged 18, has denied sleeping with the prime minister but has said she received 7,000 euros (£5,900, $9,400) from him as a gift after one of his parties.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Italian women held nationwide protests against their embattled prime minister in more than 60 towns and cities across Italy and overseas.

BBC News - Silvio Berlusconi faces Ruby sex charge trial in April

Interesting development.

Now, innocent until proven guilty yes.

But I don't need an innocent or guilty verdict to know he was already a corrupt scumbag before this, and it may very well be the case that he didn't, but the evidence seemed stacked against him, and I can't help but think he did it, given his past.

Oh and "I thought the girl was Mr. Mubarak's Granddaughter".

Like he, the prime minister of Italy wouldn't have picked up the phone and said "Hey Mr. Mubarak, why is your granddaughter at my house dressed like a skank, oh and by the way I'm just going to give her 10, 000 dollars okay?"

Does this guy think we're all stupid? :roll:
 
BBC News - Silvio Berlusconi faces Ruby sex charge trial in April

Interesting development.

Now, innocent until proven guilty yes.

But I don't need an innocent or guilty verdict to know he was already a corrupt scumbag before this, and it may very well be the case that he didn't, but the evidence seemed stacked against him, and I can't help but think he did it, given his past.

Oh and "I thought the girl was Mr. Mubarak's Granddaughter".

Like he, the prime minister of Italy wouldn't have picked up the phone and said "Hey Mr. Mubarak, why is your granddaughter at my house dressed like a skank, oh and by the way I'm


just going to give her 10, 000 dollars okay?"
Does this guy think we're all stupid? :roll:


well, yes innocent until proven guilty. however, the people do not want this guy in power anymore so I think his detractors will take a lesson from the Clinton era on this one.
 
well, yes innocent until proven guilty. however, the people do not want this guy in power anymore so I think his detractors will take a lesson from the Clinton era on this one.

To compare Clinton to Berlusconi is quite a fallacy my friend.
 
He's a dirtball even by Italian sexual norms and it's finally come back to bite him.
 
To compare Clinton to Berlusconi is quite a fallacy my friend.


:lol: How so? I am speaking of a sexual scandal bringing him to the brink of being ousted.....I see the parallel.


j-mac
 
So was Clinton respectively.


j-mac

Clinton got a BJ... terrible thing I know. He didn't possibly have sex with an underage girl and pay for it.

I think you're comparison once again is a little off here J-Mac.
 
Clinton got a BJ... terrible thing I know. He didn't possibly have sex with an underage girl and pay for it.

I think you're comparison once again is a little off here J-Mac.


Tomato, Tomato.....Spliting hairs is a liberal thing I know. But all the same....eh


j-mac
 
Tomato, Tomato.....Spliting hairs is a liberal thing I know. But all the same....eh


j-mac

:doh

head-in-the-sand.JPG
 
Yes, pretty funny, and a good use of images to try and deflect, however the comparison is valid.


j-mac

How is getting a BJ from an intern over age comparable to paying an underage girl for sex? I mean I get the fact they both did a sexual act, but the other person makes it very hard to compare the two.
 
There is no comparison. Berlusconi is a rightwing paedophile who regularly partied with underage prostitutes. I can see that some on the far right might try pitifully to defend such a degenerate, but not why. So much for their vaunted "morality"
 
How is getting a BJ from an intern over age comparable to paying an underage girl for sex? I mean I get the fact they both did a sexual act, but the other person makes it very hard to compare the two.


I think you are getting too minute in the detail of the situation. The leader is saying it didn't happen, the girl is saying it didn't happen, yet the political detractors are pushing this as if it did, and the trial is over....Remember this:



Uh huh.....


j-mac
 
I think you are getting too minute in the detail of the situation. The leader is saying it didn't happen, the girl is saying it didn't happen, yet the political detractors are pushing this as if it did, and the trial is over....Remember this:

J-mac

Just so we're clear. This is what you believe.

A man well known for being corrupt, and having lavish parties quite regularly, says it didn't happen, and that makes you believe it didn't happen.

And a girl we all know he gave money to says it didn't happen.

And to you that means it didn't happen...

Are you absolutely certain, that you're looking at this the right way.
 
I think you are getting too minute in the detail of the situation. The leader is saying it didn't happen, the girl is saying it didn't happen, yet the political detractors are pushing this as if it did, and the trial is over....Remember this:



Uh huh.....


j-mac


And I think you are being to general in trying to equate having sex with an underage girl to getting a BJ from an intern. You can say their responses maybe similar, but that is about it.
 
To compare Clinton to Berlusconi is quite a fallacy my friend.

No ****... after all this is just the very small tip of the iceberg. It is much more like Al Capone, where the "law" finally got him on tax evasion and not the murder, rape, drug trafficking and smuggling charges.

In Berlusconi's case they have not been able to get him on corruption charges because Berlusconi owns the parliament who changed the laws in his favour and of course the fact that he owns 90% of the media market in Italy...But not even in Italy, the land that gave us la Cicciolina, can stomach their top politician doing the dirty with technically under-age women and paying for it.. Remember this is only one of a number of young (of legal age for the most part) women coming forward with tapes of conversations and a paper trail, showing that Mr. Berlusconi held orgies in his official residence with prostitutes and his close male friends.

I hope this will finally get rid of Berlusconi.. Italy needs a break from that crazy man and his idiotic policies.
 
Just so we're clear. This is what you believe.

A man well known for being corrupt, and having lavish parties quite regularly, says it didn't happen, and that makes you believe it didn't happen.

And a girl we all know he gave money to says it didn't happen.

And to you that means it didn't happen...

Are you absolutely certain, that you're looking at this the right way.


Not at all. It probably did happen with the limited information we are given at this point, or at least it doesn't look good for him.

No, all I am saying is that we must wait until all the facts are known, unless equal justice, and innocent until proven guilty in a court of law is only a nice saying when you need it to be.

j-mac
 
No ****... after all this is just the very small tip of the iceberg. It is much more like Al Capone, where the "law" finally got him on tax evasion and not the murder, rape, drug trafficking and smuggling charges.

In Berlusconi's case they have not been able to get him on corruption charges because Berlusconi owns the parliament who changed the laws in his favour and of course the fact that he owns 90% of the media market in Italy...But not even in Italy, the land that gave us la Cicciolina, can stomach their top politician doing the dirty with technically under-age women and paying for it.. Remember this is only one of a number of young (of legal age for the most part) women coming forward with tapes of conversations and a paper trail, showing that Mr. Berlusconi held orgies in his official residence with prostitutes and his close male friends.

I hope this will finally get rid of Berlusconi.. Italy needs a break from that crazy man and his idiotic policies.

and who in italy supports berlusconi?...the selfish rich and their version of our rural hillbilly tparty. italy's gop
 
and who in italy supports berlusconi?...the selfish rich and their version of our rural hillbilly tparty. italy's gop

Unfortunately, quite a sizeable proportion of the electorate supports Berlusconi, and continues to do so even during these sex scandals. Speak to a few Italians, I did when I was in Genoa for a few days just before Xmas, and a lot of them think that it's okay for the PM to throw wild parties every so often. He's single again, he's rich - at least he's not a homo! - and yes, the underage thing isn't good, but girls lie, you know. Do not assume this is the end of Berlusconi, or even the beginning of the end. The guy virtually owns the country, I'd say he's all but untouchable.
 
Unfortunately, quite a sizeable proportion of the electorate supports Berlusconi, and continues to do so even during these sex scandals. Speak to a few Italians, I did when I was in Genoa for a few days just before Xmas, and a lot of them think that it's okay for the PM to throw wild parties every so often. He's single again, he's rich - at least he's not a homo! - and yes, the underage thing isn't good, but girls lie, you know. Do not assume this is the end of Berlusconi, or even the beginning of the end. The guy virtually owns the country, I'd say he's all but untouchable.

i don't disagree; i'm simply saying his base of support is similar to that of the gop in the u.s....the rich and the nationalists
 
i don't disagree; i'm simply saying his base of support is similar to that of the gop in the u.s....the rich and the nationalists

...and the populist, and the anti-immigrationists. The real problem in Italy is that the opposition is completely fractured. They can't agree on the opening of a bag of chips, so Berlusconi with his tough man, almost Mussolini-esque populism remains the country's most popular politician.
 
BBC News - Silvio Berlusconi faces Ruby sex charge trial in April

Interesting development.

Now, innocent until proven guilty yes.

But I don't need an innocent or guilty verdict to know he was already a corrupt scumbag before this, and it may very well be the case that he didn't, but the evidence seemed stacked against him, and I can't help but think he did it, given his past.

Oh and "I thought the girl was Mr. Mubarak's Granddaughter".

Like he, the prime minister of Italy wouldn't have picked up the phone and said "Hey Mr. Mubarak, why is your granddaughter at my house dressed like a skank, oh and by the way I'm just going to give her 10, 000 dollars okay?"

Does this guy think we're all stupid? :roll:

I am having a hard time believing that this trial is really that big of a deal. if he never paid to have sex with her or waited until she turned 18 before paying he would not be hot water because it is legal in that country for an adult man to have sex with a minor that age.
 
I am having a hard time believing that this trial is really that big of a deal. if he never paid to have sex with her or waited until she turned 18 before paying he would not be hot water because it is legal in that country for an adult man to have sex with a minor that age.

I don't get your point. IF he'd waited until she was 18 (i.e. no longer a minor) he would have been fine as I believe prostitution is not illegal in Italy. It's the underage bit that's causing him the problems.
 
I don't get your point. IF he'd waited until she was 18 (i.e. no longer a minor) he would have been fine as I believe prostitution is not illegal in Italy. It's the underage bit that's causing him the problems.

He is not in trouble for having sex with someone under 18 years of age. What he is in trouble for is the fact he paid that person under the age of 18 for sex.

Ages of consent in Europe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The age of consent in Italy is 14 years, with a close-in-age exception that allows those aged 13 to engage in sexual activity with partners who are less than 3 years older. The age of consent rises to 16 if one of the participants has some kind of influence on the other (e.g. teacher, tutor, adoptive parent).[9] Not knowing the fact that the victim is underage is not a legal defence.[10] It is also illegal to perform sexual acts in the presence of a minor aged less than 14 with the intent of allowing the minor to witness the acts, even if they do not take an active part.[11]

However, it may also be illegal to perform obscene acts in the presence of minors over 14 years, as in this article where a model is charged and held without bail for performing obscene acts in the presence of two 15-year-old boys. It is also illegal to pay anyone under 18 for sex, as in this article where the Italian Prime Minister is set to go on trial and faces up to 15 years in prison for allegedly paying a 17-year-old girl for sex.

See also related Wikisource articles from the Italian Criminal Code (in Italian). See also more related articles from Interpol website (in French).

So if he never paid her or waited until she was 18 before paying her he would not be in hot water.
 
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and who in italy supports berlusconi?...the selfish rich and their version of our rural hillbilly tparty. italy's gop

Wow dude....I know your monikor says "very liberal" but do you really have such disdain for those opposed to your idealogy that you denegrate them to such hights? Out to make friends are we?


j-mac
 
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