Berlusconi鈥檚 'innocent' pictures published in Spain
| MADRID
MADRID 鈥� Italy鈥檚 Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi discovered his control over media stretches only within his borders.
Spain鈥檚 main daily newspaper, El Pa铆s, recently published five photos from the prime minister's Mediterranean villa that Italian prosecutors had banned from publications.
Mr. Berlusconi appears in two pictures walking in the company of several young women. Others, showing scantily clad women sunbathing, could be modestly described as R-rated. All faces, except for Berlusconi鈥檚 were pixeled out.
It's the latest scandal threatening to engulf Berlusconi. His wife wants to divorce him for his romantic encounters earlier this year with woman a quarter of his age (he's 72). And the photos also appeared just days after an investigation opened into whether he improperly used his official plane to fly guests to his villa.
Berlusconi is enraged by the front-page publication of the photos, calling it an 鈥渁ggression鈥� of his private life. His lawyer promised to file a lawsuit against the Spanish paper for printing the pictures.
鈥淚鈥檓 not afraid,鈥� Berlusconi said, referring to the pictures. 鈥淭hey are innocent photos; there is no scandal, but it is an unacceptable violation of privacy and a scandalous aggression.鈥�
In response to the nudity, Il Cavalieri, as Berlusconi is nicknamed, asked: 鈥淲hen have you ever seen anyone take a shower in a suit and tie?鈥漈he pictures were taken over the past two years by paparazzo Antonello Zapaddu. He claims that Berlusconi held almost weekly parties at the villa and that the guests 鈥� ranging from people who appeared to be teenaged to identifiable government VIPs 鈥� sometimes arrived in government planes.
One of the guests was former Czech Prime Minister , who admitted he was one of the people in the pictures. He accused El Pa铆s of taking part in a left-wing conspiracy on the eve of European Union elections.
Prosecutors confiscated more than 300 photos Zapaddu tried selling in Italy, where Berlusconi controls most of the country鈥檚 media. But prosecutors also opened an investigation into the use of the government鈥檚 plane for personal use.
El Pa铆s seemed unfazed, saying it violated no law. Not unlike News of the World's surge in views following the publishing of photos of Michael Phelps smoking marijuana, the photos of guests at Berlusconi's villa have yielded heavy traffic at the newspaper's website. In fact, El Pa铆s broke Spain鈥檚 record for online viewing and its global exclusive has been reprinted throughout the world.
