Ruby Rubacuori

Ruby Rubacuori: the girl who could bring down Silvio Berlusconi

A belly dancer, sex parties and claims of political interference are at the centre of allegations against Italian prime minister

Ruby Rubacuori, whose real name is Karima el-Mahroug, was 17 when she met Silvio Berlusconi. Photograph: Giuseppe Aresu/AFP/Getty Images

Any one of the many allegations levelled at Silvio Berlusconi over the years would probably be sufficient to sink a prime minister in most countries, but the scandal which could finally undo him is perhaps the most scurrilous of them all. It combines an underage belly dancer, ribald sex parties and claims of political interference with the police.

The unwitting protagonist in this particular tale is Karima el-Mahroug, who also goes under the stage monicker of Ruby Rubacuori, or Ruby Heartstealer.

According to a series of media reports last October, Berlusconi met Mahroug, then 17, through Nicole Minetti, a TV showgirl turned dental hygienist who acquired a post in Berlusconi's Freedom People party after catching his eye while cleaning his teeth.

Mahroug insisted that she had not slept with the 74-year-old prime minister, but she told Italian newspapers that she attended "bunga bunga" sex parties at his mansion near Milan. At one of these, Mahroug said, she sat next to Berlusconi, who later took her upstairs and gave her an envelope containing €7,000. She said he also gave her jewellery.

Their acquaintance came to light after Mahroug was arrested in Milan for allegedly stealing cash. The station commander said that she was released after police received a call from the prime minister's office saying – incorrectly – that she was the granddaughter of Egypt's long-serving president, Hosni Mubarak.

Berlusconi ridiculed opposition calls for him to resign over the affair, saying: "As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay."