• 'Ruby the Heart Stealer' on witness stand: Berlusconi parties featured stripping 'nuns'

    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.

    By Colleen Barry, The Associated Press

    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.

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  • 'Ruby the Heart Stealer' shows up in court for Berlusconi sex trial

    Karima El Marough, better known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer," was called to testify over allegations that former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi paid to have sex with her when she was still a minor. NBC's Claudio Lavanga reports.

    By Claudio Lavanga, Producer, NBC News

    It was a much-anticipated celebrity moment for the star in the most sensational trial to come out of modern Italian politics.

    Karima El Mahroug, better known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer," was met at the High Court in Milan on Monday morning by a pack of shouting photographers. It looked like a red carpet moment, but "Ruby," sporting designer clothes, was heading not for a gala, but for a conversation with the judges in the trial of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

    The 76-year-old media billionaire is accused of having paid the former nightclub dancer for sex when she was still a minor — a crime that could cost Berlusconi his reputation and 15 years in prison.

    Both she and Berlusconi have denied having sexual relations.

    Mahroug, now 20, was asked to take the stand in December but went on vacation in Mexico instead. The prosecution alleged that it was a ploy designed to delay a verdict.


    This time, the defense requested her testimony, and then reversed itself, asking that she not be required to testify. The panel of three judges agreed that she would not be required to testify in open court, Reuters reported.

    Berlusconi's attorneys also made an appeal to halt the trial until after a national election next month, arguing that the proceedings would interfere with Berlusconi’s chances of a political comeback in the Feb. 24-25 polls. The judges dismissed the argument.

    The trial's last session is currently scheduled for Feb. 4, meaning that a verdict could come before the election.

    With the campaigning under way, the hearing churned up memories of the scandal that hung over the prime minister’s last months in office.

    Mahroug, who was a child runaway from Morocco, is alleged to have been one of the main participants in a series of parties at Berlusconi's villa near Milan during which women put on lurid striptease shows, according to the testimony of several young women.

    The 76-year-old media billionaire is accused of paying for sex with Mahroug when she was under the age of 18, a crime in Italy, and abusing his office to have her released from police custody in a separate theft incident.

    Berlusconi resigned in November 2011.

    Now the former prime minister is leading his center-right People of Freedom party into the election. The group’s popularity is edging upward, but it still trails far behind the center-left alliance.

    Berlusconi's allies accused the Milan magistrates of trying to sabotage his election bid.

    "The PDL is clearly bouncing back, and magistrates are as usual entering the fray," said PDL deputy Enrico Costa.

    Regardless of the trial’s outcome, Berlusconi is paying a hefty price for his weakness for the scandal. His wife left him in 2009 claiming she couldn't “live with someone who consorts with minors” and was recently awarded a divorce settlement of $130,000 a day.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

  • Berlusconi to 'Ruby the Heart-Stealer': 'I'll cover you in gold ... just don't say anything'

    Karima El Mahroug of Morocco (left), also known as "Ruby the Heart-Stealer," poses for photographers in a hotel in the western Austrian ski resort of Ischgl in April, 2011. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attends a soccer game between Parma and AC Milan in Parma in March of this year.

     

    By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News Producer

    ROME – All we knew of Ruby was that she stole Silvio Berlusconi’s heart. But according to leaked telephone conversations published on Monday, she also took quite a lot of money from him to lie about their relationship.

    Karima El-Marough, better known as “Ruby the Heart-Stealer,” is a Moroccan-born dancer who, according to prosecutors in Milan, had sex with the former Italian prime minister for money when she was still a minor. It’s a crime which could land Berlusconi in prison for up to three years. 

    So far El-Marough has denied having had sex with Berlusconi, although she did admit to having received thousands of euros from him. Berlusconi has claimed to have given money to her and other women as gifts to “help out,” but according to leaked telephone conversations between and her friends, that money was meant to buy her silence. 

    In the wiretapped telephone conversations dating back to October 2010, when the scandal broke, El-Marough told a number of friends that Berlusconi asked her to act "crazy" and lie. In exchange, he would give her whatever she wanted.

    According to the wire-tapped calls on Oct. 28, 2010, she told a friends: “Silvio called me to tell me he’ll give me as much money as I want, as long as I act like I am mentally unstable and a liar… as long as I don’t tell the truth. He told me ‘I’ll give you all the money you want…I’ll cover you in gold…just don’t say anything.’” 

    'Burlesconi' sex scandal comes full circle

    On the same day, El-Marough told a friend named Sergio that she had even set a specific price for her silence on the relationship with Berlusconi. 

    “Through my lawyer I asked him for five million euro ($6.5 million) in exchange for me acting like I am crazy… a liar… He accepted,” she said, according to the transcripts.

    When another friend asked her if she was afraid of being involved in such a high-profile scandal, Ruby seemed to acknowledge that she had actually hit the jackpot.

    “No, I am not afraid. I will get a lot of money…fame…why should I be afraid?” she is heard saying on the phone.

    What is certain is that she did gain fame. Since the scandal broke out, she has become a household name, even though she is better known as “Ruby the Heart-Stealer” than Karima El-Marough. She has since had a baby and appeared in a couple of small commercials.

    Whether she was effectively paid to lie in order to protect Berlusconi is up to the prosecutors to prove. But the leaked phone conversations are so far the most damaging piece of evidence against the former Italian prime minister in a trial that has that could not only end his political career, but his life as a free man.

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