3:36pm UK, Wednesday February 16, 2011
A teenage belly dancer at the centre of the Silvio Berlusconi sex scandal told prosecutors he knew she was a minor - a claim denied by the Italian PM.
Miss Mahroug's claims will be at the heart of Berlusconi's coming trial
Karima El Mahroug also said it was his idea to say she was the grand daughter of Egypt's now ousted president to get her released from police custody.
Berlusconi, 74, has been at the centre of lurid allegations involving Moroccan-born El Mahroug and is due to stand trial accused of paying her for sex and abuse of office.
El Mahroug, then 17, and Berlusconi have insisted that no sex took place but damning details of their liaison have emerged which could prove to be the final nail in his coffin.
Belly Dancer, Karima El MahrougBerlusconi took me to one side and to a room where we were alone. He said that my life would change and even if he didn't say it, it was not hard for me to see he was suggesting sex with him.
Besides the sex allegation, prosecutors say he used his position to secure her release, calling a police station after she had been arrested for theft asking for her to be freed, wrongly claiming she was the grand daughter of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
In statements given to prosecutors last August El Mahroug, now 18, recalled how she attended a party at Berlusconi's home on Valentine's Day last year. She said: ''He gave me an envelope with 50,000 Euro in it.
''Berlusconi took me to one side and to a room where we were alone. He said that my life would change and even if he didn't say it, it was not hard for me to see he was suggesting sex with him.''
She added she had told him she was 24 years old and Egyptian but when she returned the following month for another party she got talking to other female guests.
Protesters gather at Rome's Piazza del Popolo to demonstrate against Berlusconi
They told her that Berlusconi had put them up rent free in apartments on the outskirts of Milan and she then set her sights on getting one herself so she could move in as well.
She told prosecutors:''I had falsely told Berlusconi I was 24 years old and Egyptian. When he suggested a flat I had to put him straight and tell him how things really were.
''I couldn't lie anymore so I told him I was a minor and that I was not Egyptian and I had no documents (therefore in Italy illegally).''
El Mahroug added that Berlusconi then told her to say she was Mubarak's grand daughter, adding: "That way you can justify the resources that I will make available.''
Berlusconi insists he called police after El Mahroug was arrested because he genuinely believed her to be related to President Mubarak and wanted to avoid an ''embarrassing diplomatic incident.''
Prosecutors say he made the call so as to cover up the so called ''bunga bunga'' parties he was holding in his home - the phrase is said to refer to a crude after dinner sex game.
The case is based on 782 pages of wire taps, intercepted text messages and bank details - which Berlusconi insists are a gross intrusion of his private life.
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