The Moroccan teenager at the centre of the underage prostitution scandal enveloping Silvio Berlusconi insists any damage she has suffered has been at the hands of the media, not the Italian premier.
Neither Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby, nor Mr Berlusconi were present at the opening of Mr Berlusconi’s trial on charges that he paid the teen for sex when she was underage, and then used his influence to try to cover it up.
Both have denied having had sex with each other, and Ms elMahroug is not budging from that line.
Named an injured party by the prosecution, she could have petitioned to become a civil complainant in the trial, which would have allowed her to seek monetary damages in case of conviction and also question witnesses in the case.
But, her lawyer said, it also would have been a tacit admission of the prosecutors’ allegations.
“ This contrasts with what Karima has always declared. She has always said she was never the object of sexual acts by premier Berlusconi, and she has never made the choice to be a prostitute,” Paola Boccardi said.
Ms el-Mahroug does not feel that any damage she has suffered was due to Mr Berlusconi, the lawyer said.
“ There is a damage, it is a damage from the media. Karima, all over the whole world, is seen as a prostitute. When this young woman walks down the street , well-off men, very normal men in their 50s, stop and make fun of her, saying ‘ bunga bunga’,” a term reportedly describing sexually charged dancing at Mr Berlusconi’s villa.
“ This I find disconcerting,” Ms Boccardi said, adding that no one has ever come forward to say they had paid for sex with the teenager.
In Italy, prostitution is not a crime, but paying for sex with someone under 17 is since Mr Berlusconi’s own government toughened the law to raise the age of child prostitution from 16. Ms elMahroug was 17 during the period prosecutors allege she frequented Mr Berlusconi’s villa in Arcole, outside Milan, accepting cash and gifts in exchange for sexual favours. She has since turned 18.
The scandal has angered ordinary Italian women who have protested about the image projected by the parade of aspiring young showgirls who frequented the premier’s residence, not to mention the bevy of beautiful women promoted into politics by Mr Berlusconi, including the minister for equal opportunity, Mara Carfagna, a former starlet.
“ They take away the hope for our future,” Gaia Rocchi, a 21year-old studying art conservation in Milan, said outside the tribunal. Young women, she said, should not be made to feel they need to trade on their looks or sexuality to move ahead – something that is completely at odds with the reality for most Italian women.
“ The reality is that Italian women are workers. They work for less pay than men, and don’t get the same positions,” Ms Rocchi said.
Prosecutors claim Ms elMahroug was one of many young women who frequented raucous parties at the premier’s villa that started with dinner and progressed to erotic dancing before Mr Berlusconi would choose a sex partner. Three close aides to the premier could also face trial separately for allegedly organising the girls and their payments.
Ms el-Mahroug has acknowledged she received € 7,000 in cash from the premier the first time they met, on Valentine’s Day 2010, but insists it was not in exchange for sex, just an act of generosity from the premier whose media empire has made him a billionaire.