Silvio Berlusconi missed the opening day of his sex trial in Milan yesterday as it emerged that he had contacted the teenage belly-dancer at the centre of the case 53 times in three months.
The Italian Prime Minister said that he was too busy handling the problem of Libya to attend the first day of the unprecedented trial of a sitting European leader for under-age prostitution.
He sent a letter to the court in Milan saying that he had to chair a crisis meeting on Libya at his office in Rome.
The much-anticipated hearing, packed with journalists from around the world, lasted just seven minutes. The all-female bench of three judges, sitting in a courtroom famous for Red Brigade terrorism trials and the “Clean Hands” prosecutions of corrupt politicians, agreed to postpone the case until May 31.
Mr Berlusconi, who denies any wrongdoing, has offered to set aside every Monday to attend his four concurrent criminal trials.
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But Giorgio Perroni, his lawyer, said that he planned to attend the May 31 hearing, even though it falls on a Tuesday.
Prosecutors say tthat he Moroccan-born belly-dancer known as “Ruby the Heart-Stealer” — whose true name is Karima El Mahroug — attended Mr Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” sex parties 13 times last year between Valentine’s Day and her arrest on suspicion of theft in May.
At the time she was 17 years old and below the legal age for prostitution in Italy, which is 18.
Details of their telephone contacts, published by the La Repubblica newspaper today, show that they communicated by telephone or SMS 53 times over that period.
Mr Berlusconi’s first call to Ruby came on the evening after Valentine’s Day. The last took place on May 19, a week before she was taken into police custody after her room-mate accused her of theft.
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Mr Berlusconi received some good news today when Ruby, who has been named as a witness by both the prosection and defence but was not present in court, decided that she would not seek to become a “civil party” in the case.
Becoming a “civil party” would have entitled her to seek civil damages from Mr Berlusconi if he is convicted.
But Paola Boccardi, her lawyer, said that the move would amount to an admission that Ruby was a prostitute, which she denies. “That would contradict what she has always said, that she did not have sexual relations with the Prime Minister.”
Mr Berlusconi is also reportedly anxious about another woman involved in the trial.
Aides fear that Nicole Minetti, a half-British dental hygienist turned politician, might be tempted to strike a plea bargain on charges that she helped to organise prostitutes for the Prime Minister.
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Ms Minetti told the Corriere della Sera paper today, however, that she and Mr Berlusconi had spoken and “we are more united than ever.”
Mr Berlusconi’s decision to stay away from court because of Libya carried a special irony because it was Muammar Gaddafi who reportedly taught his erstwhile Italian friend the term “bunga bunga”.
Anti-Berlusconi protesters outside the court waved a photograph of the two leaders together.
“They are very similar,” said Daniela Mazzoni, retired, who is demonstrating against the Italian leader. “Berlusconi loves tyrants. He is always with (the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin, (the ousted Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine) Bin Ali, and Gaddafi.
“We are no longer a democracy,” she said. “He takes lessons from these tyrants because he wants to be like them.”