SIENA, Italy (Reuters) – Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted of bribery charges in a 2013 underage prostitution case, a judge ruled on Thursday.
Berlusconi, leader of the centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party, was accused of paying pianist Danilo Mariani to lie in a 2013 trial where Berlusconi was charged with paying to have sex with 17-year-old Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, better known in Italy by her stage name, Ruby the Heartstealer.
(Reporting by Silvia Ognibene, writing by Agnieszka Flak, editing by Gavin Jones)
