ROME, Jul 24 – A call girl who claims to have spent a night with Italy’s scandal-ridden Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is on the payroll of journalists and a liar, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
The 42-year-old Patrizia D’Addario is at the centre of a corruption investigation into entrepreneur Gianpaolo Tarantini, who allegedly arranged the tryst with Berlusconi.
But Frattini said the woman, who claims to have spent a night with Berlusconi and filmed his bedroom with her mobile phone, had made "absolutely false" statements, ANSA news agency quoted him as telling the BBC.
"Journalists are paying this escort girl, this prostitute, so that she makes public declarations against the head of government," he said.
"Paying someone to make statements is immoral," he added.
Berlusconi — facing a very public divorce — is under fire over his unexplained relationship with an 18-year-old aspiring model who calls him "Daddy."
That scandal moved on to compromising photos taken at Berlusconi’s luxury villa in Sardinia, published by the Spanish daily El Pais before the latest call girl revelations.
The photos were among some 5,000 snaps taken by photographer Antonello Zappadu, since banned from publication in Italy.
Zappadu told a Rome news conference on Wednesday that the collection was under lock and key in Colombia, where his wife comes from.
"My pictures are more frightening than the recordings because you see real people and situations," he said.
"I’m not a paparazzo but a journalist who wants to show the indecent life of the head of government," he said.
Berlusconi on Wednesday said "no inelegant situations can arise" when he hosts guests at any of his homes "because I am a person of good taste, culture and elegance."
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