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PROSTITUTION

‘Ruby’ to testify at Berlusconi sex trial

The young Moroccan dancer at the heart of Silvio Berlusconi's sex trial was summoned by an Italian court on Friday to testify in May in a separate case of alleged procurement of prostitutes.

Published: 19 April 2013 18:21 CEST
'Ruby' to testify at Berlusconi sex trial
File photo of Karima El Mahroug known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer". Photo: Joe Klamar/AFP

Karima El Mahroug was called to testify on May 24 in a trial against three Berlusconi allies — starlet turned politician Nicole Minetti, newsreader Emilio Fede and talent scout Lele Mora — for allegedly procuring dozens of young women for torrid parties at the billionaire's house.

Twenty-year-old El Mahroug, nicknamed "Ruby the Heart Stealer", is at the heart of a trial against Berlusconi.

The three-time former prime minister, 76, is accused of paying to have sex with her when she was just 17 and abusing his office to cover up the offence.

El-Mahroug had been on the witness list for both Berlusconi's defence and the prosecution but failed to appear when called. The court has relied on her previous statements to the police.

Earlier this month, she held a solitary protest outside the courts in Milan, demanding to be heard just as the case heads for a verdict and saying she had been "manipulated" by prosecutors and the media.

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PROSTITUTION

Spain’s top court reinstates first sex workers’ union

Spanish sex workers have the right to form their own union, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, overturning an earlier court decision ordering the dissolution of Spain's first such labour organisation.

Published: 2 June 2021 16:34 CEST
Spain's top court reinstates first sex workers' union
Photo: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Known as OTRAS (or “the Sex Workers’ Organisation”), the union was discretely set up in August 2018 but was closed three months later by order of the National Court following an appeal by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

But following an appeal, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of OTRAS, saying that its statutes, which had triggered the initial legal challenge, were “in line with the law” and that sex workers “have the fundamental right to freedom of association and the right to form a union”.

In its November 2018 ruling, the National Court had argued that allowing the union to exist amounted to “recognising the act of procurement as lawful”.

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Contacted by AFP, the union did not wish to comment.

When it was founded, OTRAS received the green light from the labour ministry and its statutes were publicly registered in the official gazette the day before the government went into a summer recess.

But three weeks later, the government — which portrays itself as “feminist and in favour of the abolition of prostitution” according to Sanchez’s Twitter feed at the time — started legal moves against it.

In Spain, prostitution is neither legal nor illegal but it is tolerated.

Although it is not recognised as employment, there is a large number of licensed brothels throughout the country.

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