Berlusconi faces verdict in sex-for-hire trial

MILAN (AP) — Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi faces a verdict Monday in his sensational sex-for-hire trial, charges that could bring an end to his two-decade political career.

Berlusconi is charged with paying an under-age Moroccan teen for sex and then trying to cover it up with phone calls to Milan police officials when she was picked up for alleged theft. Berlusconi and the woman deny having had sex with each other.
Prosecutors are seeking a six-year jail term and a lifetime ban from politics. Whatever the verdict, the sentence can't be effective until two appeals are heard, a process that can take months.

Berlusconi holds no official posts in the current Italian government, but remains influential in the uneasy cross-party coalition that emerged after inconclusive February elections. His decision to head the center-right coalition rather than move aside for younger leaders as he said he would boosted his forces to a second-place finish behind the center-left.

The charges against the billionaire media mogul stem from Berlusconi's infamous "bunga bunga" parties at his Milan area mansion, where he wined and dined beautiful young women while he was premier.
Neither Berlusconi nor the woman at the center of the case, Karima el-Mahroug, better known by her nickname Ruby, have testified in this trial. El-Mahroug was called by the defense but failed to show on a couple of occasions, delaying the trial. Berlusconi's team eventually dropped her from the witness list.
El-Mahroug did testify in the separate trial of three Berlusconi aids charged with procuring prostitutes for the sex-fueled parties. She told the court that Berlusconi's disco featured aspiring showgirls dressed as sexy nuns and nurses performing striptease acts, and that one woman even dressed up as President Barack Obama and the prosecutor in the sex-for-hire case, Ilda Boccassini.
Boccassini wasn't in court on Monday, but two other prosecutors were there as the judges began deliberating at 9:45 a.m.
El-Mahroug, now 20, said she attended about a half-dozen parties at Berlusconi's villa, and that after each, Berlusconi handed her an envelope with up to 3,000 euros ($3,900) in denominations of 500. She said she later received 30,000 euros cash from the then-premier paid through an intermediary — money that she told Berlusconi she wanted to use to open a beauty salon despite having no formal training.
She was 17 at the time of the alleged encounters. She has said she had claimed to be 24.
But she denied that Berlusconi had ever given her 5 million euros ($6.43 million). She said she told acquaintances and even her father that she was going to receive such a large sum "as a boast," but that it was a lie to make her seem more important.
The verdict garnered intense international media attention with half a dozen TV satellite trucks taking positions outside the court house. The verdict comes on the heels of Berlusconi's tax-fraud conviction, which along with a four-year prison sentence and five-year ban on public office, have been upheld on a first appeal.
The tax-fraud case is heading to Italy's highest court for a final appeal after Berlusconi's defense failed to derail it last week with a motion to the constitutional court arguing the trial court had made procedural a procedural error.
Berlusconi, who has been tried numerous times relating to his business dealings, has been convicted in other cases at the trial level. But those convictions have always either been overturned on appeal or the statute of limitations ran out before Italy's high court could have its say.

The sex-for-hire case is the first involving his personal conduct.