Woman at centre of Berlusconi sex trial stages protest outside court

Описание: (4 Apr 2013) SHOTLIST
1. Karima el-Mahroug, also known as Ruby, surrounded by media as she arrives in front of Milan tribunal, holding placard, puts placard down
2. Close up placard reading (Italian) "I want to defend myself from lies and biases"
3. Media pushing and surrounding el-Mahroug
4. Cameramen and photographer falling to the ground in media scrum
5. Media pushing and surrounding el-Mahroug
6. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Karima el-Mahroug, Moroccan woman involved in Berlusconi's sex-for-hire trial:
"The cause of my suffering is also due to those prosecutors who, acting on purposes that are not related to justice, have defined me prostitute, although I have always denied to have had sex for money and especially to have had sex with Silvio Berlusconi."
7. Media surrounding Karima el-Mahroug
8. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Karima el-Mahroug, Moroccan woman involved in Berlusconi's sex-for-hire trial:
"The only evidence in the trial demonstrating that I was a prostitute are some pictures that the chief of the investigations showed in the courtroom, after downloading them from my Facebook profile, a ridiculous circumstance. Then I was only 17, media and prosecutors did not consider this. But it is not everything."
9. Exterior of Milan tribunal
10. Close up letters on tribunal fa�ade reading "justice"
11. Taxi carrying el-Mahroug leaving
STORYLINE
The Moroccan woman at the centre of Silvio Berlusconi's sex-for-hire trial on Thursday staged a protest in front of Milan's courthouse, accusing Italian investigators of having ulterior motives for targeting her and accusing her of being a prostitute.
Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby, read out a six-page statement, denying she was a prostitute and insisting she had never slept with the former premier.
"The cause of my suffering is also due to those prosecutors who, acting on purposes that are not related to justice, have defined me prostitute, although I have always denied to have had sex for money and especially to have had sex with Silvio Berlusconi," she said.
Berlusconi is accused of having paid for sex with el-Mahroug while she was a teenager during his infamous "bunga-bunga" parties at his villa near Milan and then trying to cover it up.
Both deny sexual contact.
El-Mahroug has been the most pivotal character in Berlusconi's legal woes, a one-time nightclub dancer who ended up at dinner parties at his home as his second marriage collapsed.
The scandal broke in 2010 when it emerged that Berlusconi had intervened on the young woman's behalf after she was accused of stealing from a friend and was detained by Milan police.
Berlusconi said he did so thinking she was as a relative of Egypt's then-President Hosni Mubarak.
El-Mahroug's protest outside the Milan courthouse came at a politically sensitive time for Italy, as Berlusconi's centre-right party is seeking to muscle its way into a governing coalition after coming in second in inconclusive February elections.
Parliament is also poised to elect a new president in the coming weeks, a highly politicised process given that the new president will have a major role to play in calling new elections if no government can be formed from Italy's top three squabbling political blocs.


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