Was Berlusconi's 'bunga bunga' girl poisoned to silence her? Body of former model whose testimony helped convict the former Italian PM was found riddled with a chemical used in nuclear reactors
- Model Imane Fadil claimed the former prime minister would pay money for sex
- She talked of stripteases and showgirls pole-dancing in nun costumes in a cellar
- Her whistle-blowing and testimony in a Milan court saw Berlusconi convicted
- In 2019 she died of organ failure days after telling her lawyer she was poisoned
- Berlusconi claims he has 'never met this person' and 'never talked to her'
Model Imane Fadil claimed the
former prime minister would pay large sums of money for sex. Her
testimony in court in 2013 led to Berlusconi's conviction but she then
died of organ failure after telling her lawyer and her brother she had
been poisoned
She was brave
enough to give evidence, refusing to be bought off in the way it has
been suggested others have been. As a key witness at Silvio Berlusconi’s
trial for paying for sex with an underage prostitute, model Imane Fadil
claimed it was common knowledge that the former Italian prime minister
would pay large sums of money in exchange for sex.
She
described squalid stripteases and showgirls pole-dancing in nun
costumes during notorious gatherings — known as the ‘bunga bunga’
parties — held in a brick-ceilinged cellar beneath Berlusconi’s
luxurious Milan villa.
Following
Fadil’s testimony in a Milan court, Berlusconi was convicted in 2013 and
her whistle-blowing turned her into an unlikely heroine among the
politician’s detractors — a status that was about to be re-enforced as
she was due to give evidence at another trial in which Berlusconi, 82,
faces charges of bribing guests to stay silent.
But
now it seems Fadil’s courage could have come at a terrible cost. On
March 1 she died in a Milan hospital of organ failure aged 34, days
after telling her lawyer and her brother she had been poisoned.
Tests
showed Fadil had dangerously high levels of toxic metals cadmium and
antimony in her body, substances used in batteries and nuclear reactors
which can prove fatal, even if swallowed in only small doses. One of the
few known cases of cadmium poisoning is that of Russian banker Ivan K.
Kivelidi, who died in 1995 after the substance was reportedly spread on
his office telephone.
Transfusions
failed to dilute the metal contamination in Fadil’s blood, and although
no radiation was found on her body, doctors performing a post-mortem
examination this week will wear protective clothing as a precaution, as
an investigation into the death — which has been described as a murder
inquiry — begins.
‘Initial medical
record checks suggest some form of poisoning, so we are having a full
autopsy performed. She died after a month of agony,’ said prosecutor
Francesco Greco.
The Moroccan-born
brunette, who had claimed she was paid £1,650 to attend parties at
Berlusconi’s villa, never seemed to recover from her association with
the former prime minister.
Though 2010
police recordings overheard Fadil discussing her attendance at the
parties with Emilio Fede, a friend of Berlusconi who helped recruit
female guests, Berlusconi says he didn’t know her.
Berlusconi
was accused of paying for sex with an underage girl - Ruby (left) but
he successfully appealed his conviction. It is believed that Ruby was
introduced to Berlusconi by Nicole Minetti (right) - his former dental
hygienist who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2013 (reduced on
appeal to three years) for procuring women for his parties.
‘It’s
always a pity when a young person dies,’ he told the BBC after learning
of her death. ‘I never met this person, never talked to her. What I
read of her statements made me think that everything was invented,
absurd.’
Apparently agitated when
interviewed in January, short of money and living in a poorly maintained
property on the outskirts of Milan, Fadil was said to be planning to
write a book about her experiences.
She
was said to be seeking civil damages along with two other women as part
of the spin-off investigation that Berlusconi had paid witnesses for
silence. But then it was reported that a court had thrown out their
claims. Two weeks later, on January 29, Fadil was admitted to hospital.
Fadil claimed in the
interview shortly before she died that she had ‘always told the truth’
about Berlusconi’s parties — ‘unlike the others’.
So
what is the truth about the notorious bunga bunga parties — and what
happened to the young women drawn into Berlusconi’s circle?
The
billionaire ex-prime minister — who once described himself as ‘the
Jesus Christ of politics’ and has been linked to myriad offences, from
abuse of office to extortion, both of which he has been cleared —
appears impervious to the scandals with which he has been associated.
He
successfully appealed against his conviction in 2014, for paying for
sex with an underage dancer known as ‘Ruby the Heartstealer’ after a
judge ruled that even if Berlusconi had had sex with the woman, real
name Karima El Mahroug, he had been unaware she was underage.
Having
been sentenced to seven years in prison — quashed on appeal —
Berlusconi was acquitted at the same time of a second charge of abuse of
office.
‘From seven years to zero — how is that possible?’ asked Fadil at the time.
Although
Berlusconi was forced to resign as prime minister in 2011 as a result
of the sex scandal and then expelled from the Italian parliament in 2013
after a conviction for tax fraud, a ban on him re-entering politics was
effectively lifted last May, and in January he announced he would run
for a seat in the European Parliament in the May election.
With
his transplanted head of black hair, preternaturally line-free face and
adoring fiancee — former shop assistant Francesa Pascale, who, at 33 is
49 years his junior — on his arm, he is coming worryingly close to
commanding the hearts of the Italian people once again.
Fadil
— who said she had been to Berlusconi’s parties ‘a few times’ but did
not have sex with him — was far from the only female guest said to have
experienced his sleazy antics.
But she
was one of only a handful to have spoken out, with prosecutors claiming
he spent around £8 million between 2011 and 2015 to bribe his guests
into silence. Berlusconi denies any wrongdoing. Some 32 young women,
from lap dancers and beauty queens to reality television stars, were
alleged to have prostituted themselves at his parties.
So
who exactly are the bunga bunga girls? And, in a post #MeToo era and
fevered political climate, could their collective experiences finally
extinguish Berlusconi’s career once and for all?
El
Mahroug was just 17 when she reportedly attended one of Berlusconi’s
parties on Valentine’s Day in 2010. Although a year below the legal age
for prostitution, she denied ever having sold herself for sex.
She
is believed to have been introduced to Berlusconi after his friend,
Nicole Minetti — his former dental hygienist who was sentenced to five
years in prison in 2013 (reduced on appeal to three years) for procuring
women for his parties — saw her in a nightclub.
Berlusconi claims he never met
Fadil and told the BBC: 'I never met this person, never talked to her.
What I read of her statements made me think that everything was
invented, absurd'
She quickly
became a regular visitor to Villa Arcore in Milan. Their relationship
became public knowledge after El Mahroug — a Moroccan immigrant — was
arrested on suspicion of stealing. She was released without charge after
Berlusconi’s office told police she was a relative of the former
Egyptian president — something he said in court that he believed to be
true at the time.
While El Mahroug
admitted to having received a gift of £5,900 from Berlusconi, she said
the money was merely Berlusconi’s attempt to buy affection from her and
denies prostituting herself.
‘I tried, but I didn’t succeed. Like my mother told me, you’re born a hooker, you don’t become one,’ she said.
She
remained loyal to Berlusconi, telling an Italian newspaper: ‘It is the
first time in my life that a man has not tried to take me to bed.’
Berlusconi, meanwhile, who has five children from two of his three
marriages, claimed he gave El Mahroug money to keep her off the streets.
He also said that she’d lied about her age, telling him she was 24.
‘I’ve
always said I never touched Ruby. I didn’t even lay a finger on her,’
he later said. ‘Ruby has always said the same thing and nobody ever saw
anything. To prove that there was sex, you’d need a photograph, a video
or at least a credible witness. But there’s nothing of the sort. It’s
all an invention.’
Minetti, meanwhile,
whom Berlusconi had helped to become a regional councillor before she
was imprisoned, was said to have dressed up in ‘sexy’ nurse and nun
outfits.
At one party, glamour model
Marystelle Polanco, from the Dominican Republic, danced in a Barack
Obama face mask. Another model, dressed as the footballer Ronaldinho,
performed a striptease and Fadil — the first guest to testify — said she
had seen one woman remove another’s underwear. ‘I was looking for
work,’ said Fadil. ‘But the ambience was not one of work and it is easy
to understand that going to bed with the master of the house would bring
advantages.’
She added that watching
two guests dressed as nuns in black tunics and white head caps, ‘was
like something out of (the film) Sister Act and then they stripped off. I
was completely unprepared for their double act. They took off the nuns’
habits and were left just in their underwear.’
Model
Ambra Battilana was sent to one of Berlusconi’s parties in 2010 by her
agent when she was 18, a model and Miss Italy finalist, and the then
prime minister was 74. She contradicted Berlusconi’s claims his parties
were ‘elegant soirees,’ telling magistrates he kissed guests’ naked
breasts while they fondled his genitals.
Sordid
scenes then, but not ones Berlusconi — who reportedly kept a separate
phone for each woman he liked to entertain, and has described himself as
nothing more predatory than a ‘rascal’ — has felt the need to apologise
for.
Speaking during his Milan trial in 2012 he said he wasn’t holding ‘orgies’ in his villa, but ‘burlesque shows’.
The
parties were facilitated by Berlusconi’s powerful network, some of whom
were tried for providing Berlusconi with prostitutes around the same
time as the former prime minister’s trial. Showbusiness agent Lele Mora
and TV host Fede were found guilty alongside Minetti.
In
addition to parties at his Milan villa, Berlusconi is said to have
entertained countless women at his property in Rome, at dinners he
claimed were political gatherings but which one guest, prostitute
Patrizia D’Addario, claimed comprised a ‘harem’ of beautiful women.
D’Addario
said she spent the night with Berlusconi, who promised he would help
her build a hotel near her home on the coast. ‘He didn’t appear a bit
tired, he kissed me again and again and again,’ she claims of
Berlusconi, who says he can’t remember D’Addario and has never paid for
sex.
With an estimated family wealth of
£4 billion and much of the Italian media under his control,
Berlusconi’s influence has long helped him evade scrutiny — although his
defenders would argue it has left him open to blackmail. He has
admitted paying women, including Minetti and twins Eleonora and Imma De
Vivo, who were housed in a flat provided by Berlusconi and whose father
received around £50,000 on their behalf, before his trial for paying for
sex with El Mahroug.
Berlusconi’s
lawyers explained the payments as Berlusconi’s ‘usual generosity’ and
denied wrongdoing. ‘I pay for these girls’ upkeep because their lives
have been ruined by this trial,’ he said. ‘Their only fault was
accepting a dinner invitation from me.’
The
question now is whether Fadil’s secrets have gone with her to the grave
— or whether the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death will
unleash a fresh scandal that could end his career for good.
