Silvio Berlusconi denounces furore over links with 17-year-old girl

La Repubblica claims Moroccan girl suspected of theft was released after direct intervention from prime minister

• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 October 2010 20.52 BST
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Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has denounced a growing controversy over his links with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl. Photograph: Carlo Hermann/AFP/Getty Images Silvio Berlusconi today denounced as "media trash" a rapidly growing controversy over his links with a 17 year-old Moroccan girl. Three close associates of the Italian prime minister were earlier reported to have been made suspects in an investigation into the alleged aiding and abetting of juvenile prostitution. One of the three, a nationally famous television newscaster, Emilio Fede, said he was unaware of being under investigation, but said he had met the girl at the centre of the affair at Berlusconi's home. According to the daily La Repubblica, the girl – known as "Ruby" – was released from a police station in Milan in May, following a direct intervention by the prime minister's office. She had been detained on suspicion of theft, but was allowed to go after the police were apparently told that she was the niece of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. Questioned at a press conference today, Berlusconi said: "I am a person with a heart, and so I take an interest in people's problems. But I do not take an interest in media trash." La Repubblica said Ruby was met outside the police station by the second reported suspect, Berlusconi's former dental hygienist, an ex-showgirl called Nicole Minetti, who was elected this year as a regional MP for the prime minister's party. The third alleged suspect is Dario "Lele" Mora, a showbusiness manager and talent scout who is claimed to have taken "Ruby" – a runaway – under his wing when she arrived in Milan. Mora said he had "nothing to say" about the reports. The news agency AGI quoted "Ruby" as saying her version of events had been "manipulated". According to La Repubblica, she told investigators she had attended three social events at Berlusconi's villa outside Milan, but had never had sexual relations with him. She had been taken to the first – a Valentine's Day party – in an official car with a police escort and, when she arrived, she found that Fede and the then 73-year-old Berlusconi were the only men among some 20 women. The paper quoted her as saying a second party had ended in an erotic game known to those present as "bunga bunga". According to different newspaper accounts, Ruby claimed to have received ¤30,000 or ¤150,000 from the prime minister. An opposition spokesman called for Berlusconi to make a statement to parliament.