Eideard

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Italian prosecutors have asked a court to sentence former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to five years in prison if he is found guilty of corruption charges.

Berlusconi is charged with bribing a British lawyer, David Mills, to secure favorable testimony in legal cases. Prosecutors requested prison time as they summed up their case against him…and the three-judge court is expected to issue a verdict by late February.

The former premier’s lawyers have argued that the statute of limitations in the case has expired, and Mills’ conviction in the case was overturned in 2010. And even if convicted, the 75-year-old Berlusconi may never serve time due to appeals and his age — under Italian law, judges can suspend sentences for convicts over 70.

The 75-year-old Berlusconi dominated Italian politics for a decade and a half before resigning amid a financial crisis in November. He has survived a series of political, corruption and sex scandals over the years, involving allegations of embezzlement, tax fraud and bribery.

In addition to the Mills case, he also faces trial on charges that he hired an underage prostitute and later tried to pull strings to get her out of jail when she was arrested for theft.

Jail time for Berlusconi? Overdue.

Today’s standard-bearer for Italian culture
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Silvio Berlusconi faces a growing backlash from Italians women, with a group planning to throw pairs of knickers at his mansion in protest at his attitude towards women and his involvement in an alleged prostitution ring.

A series of demonstrations are due to be held this month, including the one on Sunday in which a group of women plan to hurl pairs of knickers over the fence of his mansion outside Milan as a protest against his apparent obsession with scantily-clad showgirls.

Demonstrators around Italy will call for the prime minister’s resignation over accusations by magistrates that he paid women for sex at “bunga bunga” parties at which they performed strip teases and pole dances…

The protest is being organised by a civil society group, Liberty and Justice, which claimed to have collected 100,000 signatures demanding that Mr Berlusconi resign immediately.

“In no other democratic country would a prime minister, faced with such serious legal accusations, remain in office longer than a few hours,” the group said in a statement…

The most damaging charges against Mr Berlusconi are that he paid for sex with an under age prostitute and later put pressure on police in Milan to have her released from custody over an allegation of theft.

Prosecutors in Milan, who are in charge of the investigation, are expected to request by Friday that he be sent to trial.

It’s not like it would be any loss to Italian culture, politics, prestige or power – to lose this sleazy thug.

One of Berlusconi’s favorite hookers, Patrizia D’Addario. Handcuffs?
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Italian prosecutors have uncovered a series of properties in Milan that were used to accommodate a stable of young women that were paid to perform striptease for Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister.

The claims, contained in 300 pages of legal documents, provide details for the first time of the so-called “bunga-bunga” parties that a teenage Moroccan nightclub dancer said she witnessed last year at the prime minister’s mansion at Arcore, outside Milan.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Mr Berlusconi paid for sex with the then 17-year-old girl, Karima El Mahroug, who gave herself the stage name of Ruby Rubacuori, or Ruby the Heart Stealer. Paying for sex with a woman under the age of 18 is a crime in Italy and Mr Berlusconi faces a prison sentence of up to three years if the allegations are proved. Prosecutors want to interview him this week and insist that he face trial immediately.

The 74-year-old prime minister allegedly kept up to 14 women in apartments in Milano II, a housing estate he built on the outskirts of Milan in the 1970s. Police allegedly found sex toys, gifts of expensive jewellery and envelopes stuffed with 20,000 euros in cash in the flats. Mr Berlusconi, who defeated a parliamentary no confidence vote last month, said at the weekend that the investigation was a politically-motivated attempt to destroy him by Left-wing prosecutors.

You think so, eh? Guess the rent receipts will turn up nothing, then.

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Evangelist Tony Alamo is going to prison.

A raid forced in haste, a prosecution relying on decade-old memories and a jury dealing with a century-old morality law could have given Alamo, 74, a chance to walk away from sex-crime charges a free man.

The five women he took as underage “wives” when they were as young as 8 didn’t let that happen.

Jurors cried with the women through their testimony, listening as they related how Alamo told them God commanded them to be his sexual partners and even molested one girl while in federal prison. They did not falter under cross-examination, staring down the man who took their childhood and exploited their faith.

“I just don’t want him to hurt anybody else,” the woman Alamo took as a “bride” at age 8 said on the stand, weeping. “I don’t want him to touch my little sister. She’s only 12…”

“I’m just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel,” Alamo called to reporters as U.S. marshals escorted him back to jail.

Shouts of “Bye, bye, Bernie” — Alamo was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman — came from a crowd gathered to watch.

Throw away the key!

UPDATE: Practically the same as throwing away the key. Found guilty – and sentenced to 175 years.