Friday

29th Mar 2024

Berlusconi sues over release of naked party pics

  • Mr Berlusconi has attempted to prevent the publication of the photos released in El Pais on Friday. (Photo: www.elpais.com)

Photographs of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi entertaining guests at his Sardinian villa were released by Spanish daily El Pais on Friday (5 June), including a number of images of scantily clad girls and one of a naked man.

Mr Berlusconi reacted to their publication saying: "I have nothing to fear. They are innocent photos, there is no scandal, but it is an unacceptable violation of privacy and a scandalous attack."

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Lawyers for Mr Berlusconi announced on Friday they were preparing to take legal action against the Spanish newspaper, which has exclusive rights to the photos after Italian media turned them down.

Earlier this week, Italian authorities seized many of the controversial pictures taken by photographer Antonello Zappadu in May 2008 and have placed Mr Zappadu under investigation.

The Sardinian photographer documented activities in the sumptuous Villa Certosa between January 2007 and January 2009, during which Mr Berlusconi held regular weekend parties for celebrities, reports El Pais.

Mystery naked man

Much of the scandal has centred on the identity of the naked man featured in one of the photos after Mr Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told the daily Corriere della Sera earlier in the week: "At least one snap featured former Czech Prime Minister Topolanek naked in the villa garden."

"There were Topolanek's children as well, but one never knows what the newspapers would make of it," Mr Ghedini added.

Mr Topolanek - who was forced to step down earlier this year after losing a vote of no confidence in the Czech parliament – has denied he appears in any of the photographs.

"I rule out the existence of the snaps the Italian press refers to," he told Czech television earlier this week before El Pais published the pictures.

"I expect the Italian media to apologise to me, my family and my son," said Lucie Talmanova, deputy chairwoman of the Czech lower house and Mr Topolanek's girlfriend. The couple have one son together.

Italian press have compared Mr Berlusconi's Villa Certosa to Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion, while the Italian premier says it is a summer residence where he can receive leaders for working meetings.

The villa includes a nuclear shelter, a Greek-Roman style amphitheatre and a remote-controlled waterfall.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us