Berlusconi worst then the Farc?

Source: the Times

Lucy Bannerman in Olbia, Sardinia

The photographer who prompted an international scandal with images of topless young women bathing in Silvio Berlusconi’s Sardinian villa has hinted that there are more embarrassing pictures to come — including a “mock marriage” between the Italian Prime Minister and a woman in her twenties.

In his first interview with a British newspaper, Antonello Zappadu confirmed that the unseen pictures show guests at Mr Berlusconi’s private paradise of Villa Certosa. As with previous images of a naked man and semi-clad girls published in the Spanish newspaper El País last week, the subjects have their faces pixelated to protect their identity.

Mr Zappadu declined to give many details but did say that among the photographs were images of Mr Berlusconi participating in a “fake wedding” with a young woman in the villa gardens. He said: “It seemed to be a puerile game. He was the only man. There were around six girls, and there seemed to be some sort of marriage with one of them. I would guess she was aged around 25-30.”

Mr Zappadu, 54, says he does not have any of the images in his possession and they have not yet been sold. They are believed to be in the hands of his contacts abroad, who would be able to distribute them depending on the advice of his lawyers. “There are more. This is not finished for me or Mr Berlusconi,” he told The Times.

Marco Ventura, a spokesman for the Prime Minister, denied yesterday that any such “wedding” had taken place. “It is an invented circumstance. An image like that cannot exist, and if it did it would be a doctored photograph.” Since being accused of invading the privacy of Italy’s most powerful man, Mr Zappadu has been arrested and had his photo archive seized by police. He has been threatened in anonymous e-mails and been branded a prurient paparazzo by the Prime Minister’s supporters.

At his local bar in Olbia, Sardinia, however, the thick-set man with heavy stubble and an easy smile was being treated like a hero. “Only three days ago a lady I had never met before asked to pay for my breakfast. People have come up to me on the street and hugged me. I was quite surprised at first,” he said.

During our interview a number of locals approached Mr Zappadu to shake his hand. One girl in her twenties came up to compliment him shyly on his scoop. A middle-aged couple at the next table offered their congratulations, their jokes indicating that they were not Berlusconi voters. “There are only two types of Italians: those who love Berlusconi and those who hate him. Very few are in the middle.”

The billionaire Prime Minister, 72, has been under pressure to explain why so many young women with no obvious political experience are invited to his private villa on the Costa Smeralda — although his spokesman denied that the Villa Certosa guest list was dominated by young women.

Mr Berlusconi tried to block publication of photographs of guests within the grounds and at the airport disembarking from military planes, which were taken by Mr Zappadu from 2007 to new year 2009. The Italian leader insists that the parties are “completely innocent” and claims that the shots are a gross violation of privacy.

Some of them, picturing a naked man who was later identified as Mirek Topolanek, the former Czech Prime Minister, and other unidentified girls in thongs and miniskirts, were sold to El País.

The photographer, who has been observing visitors at Villa Certosa for more than two years, said: “If we’re talking percentages, I would say around 90 per cent of guests are women — and not seasoned women. These are young girls. It is a sea of young, beautiful girls.

“You see girls in short skirts, girls being driven around the grounds by his staff, in little golf buggies. You can hear laughing, music, partying, but you do not know what is going on.”

The son of a journalist, Mr Zappadu has had a career rich in variety, including a stint covering the guerrilla conflict in Colombia. He started photographing comings and goings at Villa Certosa in early 2007 after Veronica Lario, Mr Berlusconi’s wife, first demanded — and duly received — a public apology from her husband over his alleged interest in younger women.

“I went expecting to get a picture of Berlusconi hand in hand with Lario, patching up their marriage. Instead, I saw him without Lario, with five young girls hand in hand and sitting on his knee.” One was Angela Sozio, a red-haired former Big Brother housemate whom the Prime Minister would later propose as a candidate for the European elections. The pictures, published by Oggi magazine, reportedly made the photographer more than £1 million.

“But it was when I started photographing the state flights I realised there was something that was not right,” he said. “People were coming off these flights who, to me, didn’t appear to be authorised — musicians, girls in miniskirts and fur coats.”

He estimates that about two state flights were arriving every week.

The focus returned to Villa Certosa last month after it emerged that Noemi Letizia, the teenage model at the centre of Mr Berlusconi’s troubles, had attended a party there without her parents when she was only 17.

Originally both the Prime Minister and Ms Letizia’s family had insisted that the tycoon and the teenager had met only in the presence of her mother and father. It was later confirmed that Ms Letizia had been a guest at Villa Certosa after her former boyfriend, Gino Flaminio, gave an interview claiming that she and a friend were flown to Sardinia for a new year’s party.

Mr Zappadu had taken photographs while she was there. “It wasn’t really until I read Gino’s interview that I realised I had something interesting in my hands. I didn’t know of Noemi at the time. But others who have seen the pictures say they recognised her.”

Mr Zappadu denies claims that he is invading the privacy of the Prime Minister. “For me, the state flights are more important than any ‘harem’. Many of us Italians have low pensions, minimal salaries. We are in times of economic crisis. So when I see around two state flights at the airport every week, with musicians and girls arriving to have parties, that annoys me. I think Berlusconi needs to explain that.” Mr Zappadu says that he is forbidden from selling any more photographs until the legal restrictions have been lifted. He claims that he is being monitored by the secret service and that his telephone is bugged.