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 2013 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’ 

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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.

• Moroccan model, 34, who was witness at Silvio Berlusconi’s… Italian prosecutors probe ‘poisoning’ death of Moroccan…

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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. 

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