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Berlusconi Party Pics: Nude Photos Plague Italian PM

by Tina Kells | June 5, 2009 at 05:24 pm

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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is fighting hard against racy pictures, some of which contain nude shots of his friends, were published in the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Dubbed "Berlusconi Party Pics" by the Spanish media, the seven images were taken during a vacation at the Italian PMs Villa Certosa retreat.

See the Berlusconi Party Pics

Berslusconi was able to have publication of the party pictures blocked in Italy but the court order did not reach to other nations. The nude photos, and other racy party pics, add to the growing scandal surrounding the Italian PMs private life.

Prime Minister Berlusconi has announced plans to fight back against the release of these photos in a Spanish court. Berlusconi's position is that the publication of the photos violates the privacy of his guests, who are not public figures, and that the decision of El Pais to publish them went against privacy laws.

A picture showing two young women dressed only in thongs relaxing in the landscaped garden in Sardinia is among the five images. Mr Berlusconi is also pictured walking in the garden beside another young woman, who is clothed. Another photograph shows a naked man by an outdoor pool. All the guests have their faces obscured and none is identified.

The photographs will intensify a frenzied debate in Italy on the nature of Mr Berlusconi’s relationship with a string of attractive young women, some of whom he has propelled into politics.

"The pictures show people who are given a bath in a jacuzzi in the interior of a private house for guests," Berlusconi replied when he was asked about the image that appears in a completely naked man with an erection, together with a girl lying on a lounger. But when is it that someone has a bath in a private jacuzzi in a house? I think the man has a point here.

Berlusconi party photos published in El Pais on Friday were taken by Antonello Zappadu. He used using a powerful lens to reach to the Berlusconi villa from a far distance in the Mediterranean sea.

On May 30th we published about the Berlusconi photo controversy when the prosecutors in Italy ordered the seizure of about 700 images in total, taken at the new year's party and other occasions. The pictures were taken from outside Mr Berlusconi's villa on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia by a Sardinian photographer.