MILAN: Italian magistrates said on Friday they had opened an investigation into possible murder after the mysterious death of a Moroccan model who was a regular guest at former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” parties.
Imane Fadil, 33, died on March 1 a month after being admitted to a Milan hospital with severe stomach pains. At the time she told friends and her lawyer that she had been poisoned.
Her death was only reported on Friday.
“The doctors have not identified with any certainty any pathology which can explain the death,” Milan chief prosecutor Francesco Greco told Reuters, adding that there were “several anomalies” in Fadil’s medical records.
Fadil testified at the 2012 trial of Berlusconi, who was accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.
She told the court one of the parties at the media magnate’s home involved young women, sometimes in pairs, wearing nun’s costumes and stripping off while performing raunchy pole dances.
“They started to dance like the nuns of the film ‘Sister Act’, and then they took off their clothes,” she said. At another party, a woman in her underwear stripped for Berlusconi wearing a mask with the face of footballer Ronaldinho, she said.
Berlusconi was initially convicted in the case but ultimately acquitted after a judge ruled he could not have known the underage prostitute was in fact a minor.
However, magistrates subsequently laid new charges against Berlusconi and other defendants, accusing them of bribing some of the women who attended the parties to keep them from telling the truth at the initial trial.
They have denied the accusations.
Fadil was never accused of taking bribes. Italian newspapers reported that she was writing a book about her experiences and that the magistrates had obtained a copy of the manuscript following her death.
Italian magistrates investigate mysterious death of “bunga bunga” model
Italian magistrates investigate mysterious death of “bunga bunga” model
- Fadil testified at the 2012 trial of Berlusconi, who was accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute
Japan’s beloved last pandas leave for China as ties fray
TOKYO: Two popular pandas are set to leave Tokyo for China Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbors fray.
Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao are due to be transported by truck out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.
“Although I can’t see them, I came to share the same air with them and to say, ‘Hope you’ll be OK,’” one woman visiting the zoo told public broadcaster NHK.
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month during a diplomatic spat that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The distinctive black-and-white animals, loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy,” have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since they normalized diplomatic ties in 1972.
Their repatriation comes a month before their loan period expires in February, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates Ueno Zoo.
Japan has reportedly been seeking the loan of a new pair of pandas.
However, a weekend poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed that 70 percent of those surveyed do not think the government should negotiate with China on the lease of new pandas, while 26 percent would like them to.
On Sunday, Ueno Zoo invited some 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery to see the pandas for the last time.
Passionate fans without tickets still turned out at the park, sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to demonstrate their love of the animals.
China has discouraged its nationals from traveling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
However, China routinely removes pandas from foreign countries and the latest move may not be politically motivated, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and an expert in East Asian international relations.
“If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts,” and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
Other countries use animals as tools of diplomacy, including Thailand with its elephants and Australia with its koalas, he added.
“But pandas are special,” he said. “They have strong customer-drawing power, and... they can earn money.”
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