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Italy scandal: Did state planes fly prostitutes?

ROME (AP) -- Opposition leaders have demanded an inquiry to determine if Italian government aircraft flew a bevy of young escorts to Premier Silvio Berlusconi's private parties.

Concern was also growing in Italy over whether the billionaire media mogul premier who allegedly boasted in an intercepted phone conversation that he ``did only eight'' women in one night can concentrate on rescuing Italy from its severe economic woes.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi (left) looks on prior to the start of a voting session in parliament on the government's austerity package in Rome on Sept. 14.(AP-Yonhap News)
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi (left) looks on prior to the start of a voting session in parliament on the government's austerity package in Rome on Sept. 14.(AP-Yonhap News)


Italian newspapers were filled with transcripts of intercepted phone conversations of a jailed southern businessman, Gianpaolo Tarantini, who is being investigated for allegedly arranging and paying for women to prostitute themselves with the premier at parties at Berlusconi's private residences in Rome, the Sardinia seacoast, and near Milan.

Intercepted conversations that are part of investigations may be published once they are officially deposited in the court _ in this case, in Bari, southeast Italy.

Berlusconi, who turns 75 later this month, has denied ever paying for sex. But he has boasted of his weakness for young, beautiful women, an inclination cited by his second wife, who is divorcing him.

Prostitution is not a crime in Italy, but exploiting prostitutes _ as Tarantini is alleged to have done to try to curry favors with Berlusconi to win state contracts _ is. In a separate probe, Tarantini is jailed for allegedly extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Berlusconi. The premier says he gave Tarantini and Tarantini's wife, who was also arrested, money because he is a generous man who was trying to help a ``family in need.''

However, paying for sex with an underage person is a crime in Italy. In a separate case, Berlusconi is on trial in Milan for allegedly paying for sex with a Moroccan teenager. Berlusconi denies the accusation, and contends that that trial, as well as several corruption cases that were brought against him over dealings in his business empire, is part of a plot by prosecutors he says sympathize with the left and want to topple him from power.

The Milan daily Corriere della Sera quoted the premier as telling Tarantini in one telephone call that he had to go that evening to Milan because the plane at his disposition was only available then. Tarantini then purportedly asks Berlusconi if he and some of the women could go with him from Rome to Milan, and the premier replies ``you can.''

Leoluca Orlandi of the opposition centrist Italy of Values party insisted that Berlusconi say if government planes ``paid with taxpayer money'' flew paid escorts to his private soirees. Orlandi added in a statement Saturday that his party has asked the premier's office to conduct an urgent inquiry.

The speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, meanwhile, suggested it was time for Berlusconi to step down.

``No one understands why the premier is dedicating a good deal of his time to questions not related to fighting the economic crisis and relaunching the economy,'' Gianfranco Fini, a former Berlusconi ally, told reporters at a rally near Milan.

In one of the conversations, Berlusconi purportedly tells a frequent female guest at his parties, ``I am premier in my spare time.''

The Corriere della Sera cautioned its readers that in running four full pages of transcripts, it left out ``the heavier or more vulgar passages, as well as detailed sexual descriptions'' that were picked up in the phone calls intercepted by Italy's financial police.

The Rome daily La Repubblica quoted Berlusconi telling Tarantini in one call in early 2009 that one night 11 women were lined outside his room. The premier then confided that ``I only did eight of them because I couldn't do it anymore.'' He adding that, while ``you can't do all of them,'' the next morning he felt ``well, satisfied with my ability to resist the siege of a lifetime.''

Reflected in many of the conversations Tarantini had with women he allegedly was recruiting for paid sex with Berlusconi is an entrenched national culture where sexy women become symbols and instruments of power, especially in the world of politics and TV entertainment.

In a conversation, the media mogul brags that at one of the parties male guests include an executive in his entertainment empire and another from state TV in charge of the made-for-TV fiction division.

``So, this way the girls will get the idea that they are in front of men who can decide their destiny,'' Berlusconi is quoted as saying. He refers to the two ``as little old men who, however, have much power.'' As for female guests, Berlusconi purportedly tells Tarantini that he ``has two little girls,'' including one who is a journalist for state TV and another one, a ``very nice, very sweet Neapolitan'' woman working at his Mediaset private network.

One showgirl, according to what Tarantini says in a phone conversation with a female friend, was purportedly promised she would be chosen to host Italy's annual San Remo song festival, which runs on state TV. Being the host is a highly paid and prestigious job. According to La Repubblica, the showgirl reportedly spurned the prospect and didn't come to a dinner at Berlusconi's Rome residence.

 

<한글기사> 

'성추문'伊총리 "하룻밤에 8명과…"

야당, 긴급 조사 촉구

실비오 베를루스코니(74) 이탈리아 총리와 그에 게 성매매를 알선한 혐의를 받고 있는 한 기업인이 주고받은 `적나라한' 전화통화 내용 기록이 17일 공개돼 파문이 일고 있다.

 미 NBC 등이 보도한 통화 기록에 따르면 베를루스코니는 2009년 초 기업인 잠파 올로 타란티니와의 통화에서 "여성 11명이 문밖에서 기다리고 있지만, 나는 더는 할 수 없어서 하룻밤에 8명과만 성관계를 했다"고 자랑했다.

 또 `단신'인 베를루스코니는 타란티니에게 "우리가 키가 크지 않으니 키가 큰 여성을 (파티에) 데려오지 말라"고 요청하기도 했다.

 이와 함께 자신의 사저에 40명의 여성이 묵고 있다고 자랑하는가 하면,  타란티 니에게 다음번에는 누구를 데려다 줄 것인지 묻는 내용도 담겨 있다.

 NBC는 통화 기록 대부분이 유럽 내 3위의 경제 대국을 이끄는 고령의  지도자보 다는 지나치게 흥분한 10대에게나 어울릴만한 부적절한 내용이라고 지적했다.

 특히 베를루스코니는 업무차 밀라노 방문 중에 여성 `친구'들이 자신과 합류할 수 있도록 대통령 비행기 사용을 허가한 것으로 드러나 논란이 일고 있다.

 통화기록에 언급된 여성들은 성 상납을 대가로 주목을 받고 싶어하는 신인 배우 나 기상캐스터, 모델들로 대부분 베를루스코니가 벌인 `환락 파티'에 참석했다.

 또 다른 통화에서 보면 베를루스코니는 자신이 소유한 영화배급사 사장과  자신 이 사주로 있는 상업방송인 RAI의 임원 등을 파티 초청 대상에 올렸다.

 베를루스코니는 "이렇게 하는 것은 여자들이 그들의 운명을 결정할 수 있는  남 자들 앞에 있다는 생각을 가지도록 하기 위해서"라고 말했다.

 베를루스코니 총리는 현재 사기와 권력남용, 미성년자 성매매 등과 관련해 세 가지 별도의 재판을 받고 있으며 검찰은 15일은 타란티니를 비롯한 8명에 대해 매춘 부들을 공급한 혐의로 기소했다.

 현재 수감 중인 타란티니는 총리 사저에서 열린 파티에 참석한 수많은 여성에게 돈을 지불한 사실을 인정하면서도, 베를루스코니 총리가 그 여성들이 매춘부라는 사 실은 몰랐다고 주장하고 있다.

 베를루스코니의 통화 내역이 공개되자 야당은 즉각 긴급 조사를 촉구했다.

 '이탈리아 가치당(IDV)'의 레올루카 오를란도 의원은 총리가 자신의 사적  파티 를 위해 세금으로 산 정부 비행기를 이용했다며 긴급 조사를 하라고 총리실에  요구했다. (연합뉴스)

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