Three women to preside over Berlusconi sex trial
The trial of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi – who is accused of paying an underage girl for sex – is to be presided over by a panel of three judges, all of them female. Bloomberg reports that the trial, which is to begin in Milan on April 6, will be presided over by Giulia Turri, Orsola De Cristoforo and Cermen D’Elia. Though the selection of the judges is totally randomised, New York Magazine points out that the appointment comes just days after rallies across Italy when tens of thousands of women turned out to protest against Berlusconi’s conduct around women. The nomination of the three female judges – all of whom have considerable legal experience, Bloomberg adds – has been welcomed by his opponents in Italy; the Guardian quotes the Catholic weekly paper Famiglia Cristiana as implying that women are Berlusconi’s ‘nemesis’. A female MP from Berlusconi’s party added that the all-female bench was “the worst that could have been thought of.”