Stefano Porta / ANSA via EPA

Karima El-Mahrough, nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer, leaves a Milan courtroom after testifying about former premier Silvio Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" parties.

MILAN -- The Moroccan woman at the center of a sex scandal involving former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi testified Friday in court for the first time, describing how a young woman attending one of Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" parties dressed as a nun, danced provocatively and stripped down to her underwear for the premier.

Karima el-Mahroug took the witness stand in the trial of three former Berlusconi aides charged with recruiting her and other women for prostitution. They deny the charges. The trial is separate from the one in which Berlusconi is charged with paying for sex with a minor — el-Mahroug herself — and trying to cover it up.

El-Mahroug, also known as Ruby or Ruby the Heart Stealer, has made carefully orchestrated statements to the media since the scandal broke but has never publicly given sworn testimony. Both she and Berlusconi deny having had sex.

The three Berlusconi aides — Emilio Fede, an executive in Berlusconi's media empire; Nicole Minetti, a former dental hygienist, showgirl and local politician, and talent agent Dario "Lele" Mora — are accused of recruiting women for prostitution at the parties and abetting prostitution, including of a minor.

El-Mahroug's testimony Friday confirmed the sexual atmosphere at Berlusconi's infamous "bunga bunga" parties, which were filled with beautiful young women. Many of those women have said they received money from the billionaire media mogul.

Dressed soberly with her hair pulled back, El-Mahroug said she first made contact with Berlusconi's inner circle when she participated in a beauty contest organized by Fede in Sicily when she was 16.

Vincenzo Pinto / AFP - Getty Images

Karima el-Mahroug said she visited a mansion belonging to Silvio Berlusconi, seen here in 2011, a half-dozen times. Each time she received an envelope containing money, el-Mahroug testified Friday.

After that she made her way to Milan, hoping to find work. She said she tried to get work through another defendant's talent agency but wound up landing a job as a hostess in nightclubs, earning around $130 a night.

Eventually, she ran into Fede at a restaurant, where she reminded him of his promise in Sicily to help her. Shortly thereafter, she was invited to a dinner party — at Berlusconi's villa outside Milan.

She testified that she met the premier that night — on Valentine's Day in 2010 — and that he gave her an envelope of 2,000 to 3,000 euros ($2,600 to $3,900), saying it was "a little help" and asking for her telephone number, which she gave him.

At that party, she said, she introduced herself as Ruby and told other guests a fake tale that she was Egyptian, that her mother was a famous Arab singer and that she was related to then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. She was 17 at the time but had passed herself off as being 24.

El-Mahroug confirmed Friday what other witnesses have testified previously: that at some of the soirees, young female party guests had dressed up like nuns and danced for Berlusconi and then stripped down to their underwear.

El-Mahroug said Minetti, one of the defendants, had dressed up like a nun at that Feb. 14 party and lifted her costume to show off her legs as she danced in Berlusconi's in-house disco, which was outfitted with a lap-dance pole. El-Mahroug demonstrated from her seat how Minetti had raised her hemline. She said Minetti eventually took off her costume and was in just her lingerie.

She said other girls dressed up as President Barack Obama and a Milan magistrate who is leading the prosecution against Berlusconi in the sex scandal.

"The girls who were dressed in costumes approached him in a sensual way as they danced. They raised their skirts," El-Mahroug testified. She added: "I never saw contact."

El-Mahroug said she visited Berlusconi's mansion, Arcore, a half-dozen times, and that each time she was given an envelope with money, always in 500 euro ($645) bills. The second evening she went she said she was given more than $2,500.

Prosecutors in Berlusconi's separate trial have said El-Mahroug's testimony is unreliable and are relying on her sworn statements. The defense had initially called her as a witness, but then changed its strategy and didn't call her. That trial is nearing a verdict.

Related:

• Berlusconi: 'I'll cover you in gold'
• 'Ruby' shows up for Berlusconi sex trial
• Berlusconi sex scandal comes full circle

Italian prosecutors on Monday called for a six-year jail sentence and a lifetime ban on holding public office for former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, charged with abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor. 

The 76-year-old billionaire media tycoon and center-right senator is accused of paying for sex with Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name "Ruby the Heartstealer," when she was under 18, during the now notorious "bunga bunga" parties at his villa at Arcore near Milan in 2010. 

However, prosecutors argued the far more serious charge was that Berlusconi abused the powers of his office during a separate incident by arranging for her to be released from police custody where she was being held on theft charges. 

They requested 5 years imprisonment for that and a year for paying for sex with a minor. The verdict is expected on June 24. 

"At Arcore there was a system of organized prostitution aimed at the satisfaction of the sexual pleasure of Silvio Berlusconi," Milan chief prosecutor Ilda Boccassini said in a more than six-hour closing argument. 

"There is no doubt that Ruby had sex with the defendant, from whom she received benefits," she said. 

Berlusconi has vigorously denied the accusations. El Mahroug, who staged a dramatic protest outside the Milan court last month, has always denied being a prostitute or having had sex with Berlusconi. 

The sentencing request adds to a mass of legal problems facing Berlusconi, who last week lost an appeal against a four-year sentence for tax fraud in connection with his Mediaset broadcasting empire. Berlusconi will now launch a second and final appeal. 

No final verdict will be enforced until the appeals process, which can last for years, is exhausted but Berlusconi's legal sagas have created growing tension within the coalition government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta. 

Berlusconi mounted a fierce attack on prosecutors over the weekend at a stormy rally in the northern city of Brescia that was attended by center-right members of the government including Interior Minister Angelino Alfano. 

Letta's own center-left Democratic Part sharply criticized Alfano's presence at the rally, which it took as an endorsement of Berlusconi's comments and the prime minister warned his coalition partners that there could be no repeat if the government was to survive. 

Berlusconi's campaign continued on Sunday with a lavish two-hour special on his own Canale 5 channel presenting his version of the "bunga bunga" evenings where prosecutors allege that sex parties involving a string of young women took place. 

The program showed El Mahroug admitting that she had lied about certain aspects of her life to investigators but flatly denying any sexual relationship with Berlusconi and complaining at media representations of her as a prostitute. 

It filmed the dining room and theatre at Berlusconi's palatial villa near Milan and presented an array of witnesses who said the evenings there were convivial parties where he entertained guests by singing and telling stories.