ROME — The Moroccan teen at the center of a prostitution scandal that has sent Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi to trial says she has done nothing wrong and that “all the gold in the world” could not make up for the suffering she has endured.
In e-mails Wednesday and Thursday, the teen nicknamed Ruby lamented she has been “treated as a prostitute by all the Italian and foreign media.”
“I want to be compensated for having been hurt so much and all the gold in the world would not be enough,” the teen, whose real name is Karima el-Mahroug, wrote in Italian.
The teen, now 18, requested from the AP the equivalent of about $20,340 for a full TV interview, saying: “I don’t do anything for nothing.”
The AP, a not-for-profit news cooperative, does not pay for interviews.
Berlusconi, 74, was indicted Tuesday on charges that he paid for sex with the teen when she was 17 and underage, then used his influence to cover it up. The abuse-of-influence charge relates to efforts by the premier to get her out of the custody of Milan police when she was detained in May as a suspect in the theft of about $4,103. His trial begins April 6.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 02/18/2011