Italy's top court overturns acquittals in Berlusconi Bunga Bunga case

Italy's supreme court on Monday overturned the acquittal of 23 people over allegations they took bribes from late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to lie in an underage prostitution case that had dogged him for years.

The ruling means that even though Berlusconi himself died last year, one of the most famous investigations tied to his extravagant past, lives on.

A Milan court in February 2023 had acquitted Berlusconi and all the other defendants - mostly young, female guests at his so-called Bunga Bunga parties - saying they had no case to answer because of alleged legal errors by the prosecutors.

However, the supreme court judges rejected the ruling and said the defendants now had to face an appeal trial over the bribery charges.

Interlinked charges of giving false testimony were dropped due to the statute of limitations kicking in, meaning that too much time has elapsed for the alleged crimes to be judged.

Among those being sent back to court is the Moroccan dancer Karima El Mahroug, alias "Ruby the Heart Stealer", who Berlusconi once sprung from a police station by saying she was the niece of then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Magistrates accused Berlusconi of paying thousands of euros for sex with her when she was underage. He denied this and was eventually acquitted after a court ruled he could not have known that she was under 18.

The scandal contributed to Berlusconi's downfall as prime minister in 2011, and it continued to hound him for more than a decade, with prosecutors saying they had evidence that witnesses had accepted bribes to lie in court about his lavish parties.

Before his death, Berlusconi acknowledged giving money to a number of his guests, but said it was offered spontaneously as compensation for the reputation damage they had suffered by being associated with his infamous soirees.