Court biased against Berlusconi, says defense

MILAN: Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s defense denied yesterday that there were any erotic escapades at dinners at his villa near Milan and accused the court of bias against the media mogul.
Nicolo Ghedini said during closing arguments that Berlusconi neither paid for sex with an under-age teen, nor exerted pressure on police officials in an effort to cover it up, as charged. The sensational trial is in its final stage, with a verdict is expected later this month.
Both Berlusconi and the woman, Karima Al-Mahroug, who is now 20 and was 17 at the time of the alleged encounters, deny ever having had relationship.
Ghedini said most prosecution witnesses who described scenes of sexual excess during the parties were not there between February 2010 and May 2010 when Al-Mahroug, better known as Ruby, attended dinners at the villa. Defense witnesses described “normal” dinners during which participants chatted about soccer and denied any physical encounters with the then-premier.
“We have 25 witnesses give more or less similar accounts of the evenings,” Ghedini said, adding that prosecutors could not argue that their witnesses were correct while those of the defense who denied having sex with the premier were not reliable.
Ghedini also said the judges hearing the case “culturally similar” to prosecutors, whom he has accused of waging a politically motivated campaign against Berlusconi with the goal of removing him from politics.
“I had the impression during the course of this trial of having caused some annoyance to the judges,” Ghedini said.
Berlusconi’s defense has sought to move the sex trial and a tax fraud case to Brescia, another northern Italian city, arguing that Milan magistrates are biased against Berlusconi, who has faced numerous prosecutors for his business deals. Italy’s high court denied the request.