Policeman: Dancer said Berlusconi would help her join police

Feb 13, 2012, 13:00 GMT

Rome - A Moroccan go-go dancer at the centre of a sex trial against former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi boasted in 2010 that he would help her join Italy's Carabinieri law enforcement unit, a police officer testified on Monday.

Ermes Cafaro was giving evidence at the Milan trial in which Berlusconi is accused of paying Karima el Mahroug - also known as Ruby Rubacuore (Heart Stealer) - for sex when she was still 17, and thus underage in terms of Italy's prostitution laws.

Cafaro told the court that he and a colleague arrested El Mahroug on May 27, 2010 in Milan after a former housemate of the dancer had laid theft charges against her.

'Ruby told me she wanted to join the Carabinieri, and when I informed her that she would not be able to do so ... she replied that Silvio would have obtained the right documents for her,' Cafaro said, according to ANSA news agency.

El Mahroug also told the officers she was the niece of Egypt's then president, Hosny Mubarak - a claim that was also made by Berlusconi when he allegedly pressured police to release her into the care of a friend of his.

Following El Mahroug's arrest, the police realized that Ruby's name appeared on their records for another incident involving theft and that she had escaped from a shelter for troubled girls in Sicily, Cafaro told the court.

A juvenile court magistrate had initially ordered that El Mahroug be placed in the care of a shelter in Milan pending further investigations in the theft case, Cafaro said.

The order was never carried out, as Berlusconi telephoned the police to warn them that detaining El Mahroug would cause a diplomatic incident with Egypt due to her family ties to Mubarak, prosecutors say.

El Mahroug was instead picked up at the police station by Nicole Minetti, a former television showgirl-turned-regional-politician for Berlusconi's conservative People of Freedom party.

Berlusconi is also charged with abusing his position as premier to interfere with police work, in order to cover up his relationship with the dancer.

Berlusconi - who has yet to attend any hearings since the trial began last April, often saying that his official duties prevented him from doing so - denies any wrongdoing in the case.

Minetti is involved in a separate trial in which she and two other friends of Berlusconi's - a television anchorman and a talent agent - face abetting of prostitution charges for allegedly recruiting El Mahroug and other women to attend sex parties hosted by Berlusconi at his villa near Milan.

The three deny any wrongdoing.

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