If you go to Google News in Italy, you see an awful lot about RubyGate. Which is weird because the suffix -Gate doesn't seem to make sense when every other word in the news article is in Italian. Weirder still because nobody in the story is actually named Ruby.
SILVIO BERLUSCONI
The story starts and ends with the man who has been Prime Minister of Italy for most of adult life as well as being worth $9 billion, running three national television stations in Italy, as well as owning AC Milan, the most successful Italian football club.
Berlusconi's colorful legal past has been well-documented and the Legal Troubles and Controversies sections on his wikipedia page run nearly 9,000 words (and make for excellent reading).
Flash back to December 2009, Berlusconi was at a rally outside Milan. While he was shaking hands with his constituents, a 42-year old man walked up to him and threw a replica of Milan's cathedral at the Prime Minister's face, breaking his nose and knocking out two of his teeth (gory video here.)
The attacker apologized and Berlusconi (who at the time was under the cloud of a different prostitution scandal that would result in his wife filing for divorce) experienced a brief wave of national sympathy. He also met Nicole Minetti, a 25-year old TV-showgirl-turned-dental hygienist who would help nurse Berlusconi back to health. For her ministrations, she would receive an appointment as a general councillor in Lombardy.
She's also being questioned this week. About Ruby.
On May 27th of last year, a girl was arrested without identification in Milan and charged with stealing three thousand euros. She was a seventeen-year-old nightclub dancer who went by the name Ruby Rubicuori (Ruby the Heartstealer) and since she had no identification, she was taken into custody and placed in a shelter for juvenile offenders. Within a few hours, Berlusconi calls from Paris and demands her release explaining that she is "Hosni Mubarak's grandaughter" and that she had to be released immediately in order to avoid an international incident. And so she was released, to newly-minted public official, Nicole Minetti.
The actual text of P.M. Berlusconi's infamous comment, "'As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay."
Suffices to say, it did not charm a large portion of the citizenry. To make matters worse, the scope of what was becoming known as Rubygate was widening and beginning to include specific anecdotes from Ruby (whose real name is Karima El Mahroug and is a Morrocan runaway) regarding trading sex with the Prime Minister for money and jewelry.
Even a man with Berlusconi's colorful past, this has all proved a little much for the Italian citizens. Nicole Minetti is being implicated as Berlusconi's chief procurer of young (or very young) women for what are now being called "bunga bunga" parties in which prosecutors are alleging that Berlusconi
What's more, Ruby herself has repeatedly denied that Berlusconi ever 'laid a hand on her' (despite testimony from friends' of hers to the contrary and the extraordinary gifts which she acknowledges having received from the Prime Minster including a diamond necklace, six thousand euros, and an Audi.
So this is pretty much where Rubygate stands at the moment. The prosecution believes they have enough evidence that they can forgo preliminary hearings and push for a trial with weeks.
Meanwhile, Berlusconi's approval rating has shrunk from 40% to 35% which is still 13 points higher than George W. Bush's when he left office in 2009.
 |
| Don't hate on his Christ-like nature. |
The story starts and ends with the man who has been Prime Minister of Italy for most of adult life as well as being worth $9 billion, running three national television stations in Italy, as well as owning AC Milan, the most successful Italian football club.
Berlusconi's colorful legal past has been well-documented and the Legal Troubles and Controversies sections on his wikipedia page run nearly 9,000 words (and make for excellent reading).
Flash back to December 2009, Berlusconi was at a rally outside Milan. While he was shaking hands with his constituents, a 42-year old man walked up to him and threw a replica of Milan's cathedral at the Prime Minister's face, breaking his nose and knocking out two of his teeth (gory video here.)
The attacker apologized and Berlusconi (who at the time was under the cloud of a different prostitution scandal that would result in his wife filing for divorce) experienced a brief wave of national sympathy. He also met Nicole Minetti, a 25-year old TV-showgirl-turned-dental hygienist who would help nurse Berlusconi back to health. For her ministrations, she would receive an appointment as a general councillor in Lombardy.
She's also being questioned this week. About Ruby.
 |
| Everybody, meet Ruby. |
On May 27th of last year, a girl was arrested without identification in Milan and charged with stealing three thousand euros. She was a seventeen-year-old nightclub dancer who went by the name Ruby Rubicuori (Ruby the Heartstealer) and since she had no identification, she was taken into custody and placed in a shelter for juvenile offenders. Within a few hours, Berlusconi calls from Paris and demands her release explaining that she is "Hosni Mubarak's grandaughter" and that she had to be released immediately in order to avoid an international incident. And so she was released, to newly-minted public official, Nicole Minetti.
 |
| I believe Rodney Dangerfield may have used this defense. |
The actual text of P.M. Berlusconi's infamous comment, "'As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay."
Suffices to say, it did not charm a large portion of the citizenry. To make matters worse, the scope of what was becoming known as Rubygate was widening and beginning to include specific anecdotes from Ruby (whose real name is Karima El Mahroug and is a Morrocan runaway) regarding trading sex with the Prime Minister for money and jewelry.
Even a man with Berlusconi's colorful past, this has all proved a little much for the Italian citizens. Nicole Minetti is being implicated as Berlusconi's chief procurer of young (or very young) women for what are now being called "bunga bunga" parties in which prosecutors are alleging that Berlusconi
"paid for sex with a “significant” number of prostitutes, including a then 17-year-old nightclub dancer who goes by the name of “Ruby the Heart Stealer”, at parties in his luxurious villa."Berlusconi says he's never paid for sex because he's "never understood where the satisfaction is when you're missing the pleasure of the conquest."
What's more, Ruby herself has repeatedly denied that Berlusconi ever 'laid a hand on her' (despite testimony from friends' of hers to the contrary and the extraordinary gifts which she acknowledges having received from the Prime Minster including a diamond necklace, six thousand euros, and an Audi.
So this is pretty much where Rubygate stands at the moment. The prosecution believes they have enough evidence that they can forgo preliminary hearings and push for a trial with weeks.
Meanwhile, Berlusconi's approval rating has shrunk from 40% to 35% which is still 13 points higher than George W. Bush's when he left office in 2009.
1 comments:
let's see...where should I start...?
Post a Comment