John
01-20-2011, 08:14 AM
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is fighting back amid claims he had sex with an underage girl in exchange for cash.
The Moroccan teenager at the centre of an underage prostitution probe targeting the premier also denied any sexual contact with the leader.
The media mogul says he will introduce a law to stop magistrates from pursuing elected officials - after allegations he had paid for sex with a 17-year-old dancer known as Ruby.
He recorded a message broadcast on Italian television - for the second time in a few days - again rubbishing the claims and dismissing calls for his resignation.
The 74-year-old leader charged that the prosecutors used methods worthy of a Mafia criminal.
And he said he would not respond to a summons by the prosecutors this weekend as he did not want to give credence to an investigation he called illegitimate and politically driven.
"There's nothing I should be ashamed of," he said
"I would like to go on trial immediately, but with impartial judges, not with prosecutors who want to use this case as a means of political fight."
Prosecutors allege Berlusconi paid for sex with the girl, then a minor, and used his office to cover it up.
They have forwarded 389 pages of material, including wiretaps, to parliament to get special permission to search some of Berlusconi's properties.
Examining the documents will take at least a week, according to news reports.
Hours before Berlusconi's video statement, the teenager appeared Wednesday on a talk show aired on the Mediaset network the premier founded.
Going by her real name of Karima El Mahroug, she wept as she insisted she never worked as a prostitute and that Berlusconi "never put a finger on me".
Source - Yahoo.
The Moroccan teenager at the centre of an underage prostitution probe targeting the premier also denied any sexual contact with the leader.
The media mogul says he will introduce a law to stop magistrates from pursuing elected officials - after allegations he had paid for sex with a 17-year-old dancer known as Ruby.
He recorded a message broadcast on Italian television - for the second time in a few days - again rubbishing the claims and dismissing calls for his resignation.
The 74-year-old leader charged that the prosecutors used methods worthy of a Mafia criminal.
And he said he would not respond to a summons by the prosecutors this weekend as he did not want to give credence to an investigation he called illegitimate and politically driven.
"There's nothing I should be ashamed of," he said
"I would like to go on trial immediately, but with impartial judges, not with prosecutors who want to use this case as a means of political fight."
Prosecutors allege Berlusconi paid for sex with the girl, then a minor, and used his office to cover it up.
They have forwarded 389 pages of material, including wiretaps, to parliament to get special permission to search some of Berlusconi's properties.
Examining the documents will take at least a week, according to news reports.
Hours before Berlusconi's video statement, the teenager appeared Wednesday on a talk show aired on the Mediaset network the premier founded.
Going by her real name of Karima El Mahroug, she wept as she insisted she never worked as a prostitute and that Berlusconi "never put a finger on me".
Source - Yahoo.