Italy’s ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi acquitted in ‘Banga Banga’ sex parties case

Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted on Wednesday over allegations that he bribed witnesses in the notorious underage prostitution case, colloquially referred to as ‘Banga Banga’ parties.

It was alleged that Berlusconi bribed witnesses to lie in a previous trial in which he was charged with paying for sex in 2010 with then-17-year-old Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima el-Mahroug, who is also known by her stage name "Ruby the Heart Stealer."

Though initially found guilty, the former PM was acquitted in 2014 after an appeals court found no proof of the girl being a minor.

However, the judges suspected that the witnesses may have provided false testimonies, including Mahroug, after a clip of her bragging about sex with Berlusconi and describing orgiastic scenes at his parties came to the fore.

The 86-year-old had denied the allegations and said he is the victim of a years-long plot by magistrates to hound him from politics. He also insisted that these hedonistic parties were in fact elegant dinners.

The prosecutors had sought a six-year prison term for Berlusconi, whose Forza Italia party is a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's governing coalition.

"I can only express our utmost satisfaction for this unequivocal acquittal," Berlusconi's lawyer Federico Cecconi told reporters after the verdict.

Apart from Berlusconi, the other 28 co-defendants, many of them young women accused of accepting bribes, were also all acquitted, including Mahroug.

"I am so happy ... It's a liberation from years that were tough to say the least. It overwhelmed me when I was 17 and it carried on until I was 30. It was a nightmare," El Mahroug told reporters.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE