Berlusconi trying to ban villa photos
29 minutes ago
ROME (AFP) — Italian prosecutors Saturday ordered the seizure of several hundred photographs, whose publication Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is trying to block, taken at his Sardinia villa and reportedly featuring topless young women.
The move came after Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini filed a complaint against a photographer who took some 700 snaps of private parties at the Italian leader's home, the domestic ANSA news agency reported.
The photographer, Antonello Zappadu, will also be charged in a separate case of fraud for trying to sell the snaps, which Berlusconi says violate his privacy, to two celebrity magazines.
Berlusconi wrote three days ago to the Italian data protection agency asking it to stop publication of the photos taken at the Villa de Porto Rotondo, the newspapers La Stampa and Il Corriere della Serra said.
There are said to be around 700 photos in all, taken by a Sardinian photographer, some of which depict what Il Corriere described as "bikini-clad or topless girls" lounging in the gardens or taking showers.
Other images show Berlusconi, 72, with clad women on guest-house patios, added the newspaper, which carried what it called the full text of the prime minister's letter to the Garante della Privacy agency.
Berlusconi, who hosts a G8 summit in July, is under pressure to explain his relationship with Noemi Letizia, 18, who is at the centre of a highly public row between him and second wife Veronica Lario, who has filed for divorce.
On Thursday the media tycoon turned politician denied ever having a "spicy" relationship with an underage girl, and vowed to resign if rumours about his ties to aspiring model Letizia proved true.
A notorious New Year's Eve party at the villa attended by Letizia, who was a minor at the time, is said to be among the Sardinia photos that Berlusconi wants banned, Il Corriere said.
In his letter to the data protection agency, which oversees Italian privacy laws, Berlusconi said his villa guests had been photographers in an "intrusive" manner during "private moments" insides premises extended to them.
But the photographer, Zappadu, in a letter published by Il Corriere, said the pictures were taken "in several outdoor locations that cannot be regarded as a private dwelling".
Two years ago Zappadu sold pictures to the gossip magazine Oggi showing Berlusconi in the same villa with five young women, some of them sitting on his knees or walking hand-in-hand with him.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
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