ROME, June 5, 2009 (AFP) -
Italy's scandal-plagued Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi angrily insisted Friday he had nothing to fear after the publication of photos showing topless women and a naked man sunbathing at his island villa.
Berlusconi's lawyer vowed to sue Spain's El Pais after the daily published the pictures, which were among hundreds of photos that had been seized by Italian authorities after the premier filed a complaint to block their release.
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| A man reads the Spanish newspaper El Pais on June 05, 2009 in Madrid in which private pictures of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have been published. |
The pictures were released on the eve of European Parliament elections in Italy, which could now serve as a test on the scandal's impact on his popularity.
But Berlusconi, already engulfed in scandal over his wife's decision to divorce him and his links to an aspiring teenage model, insisted that the photos were “innocent”.
“I am not frightened. These are innocent photos, there is no scandal, but there has been an aggressive intrusion into my private life,” he said on Italian public radio.
“The photos show people bathing in a jacuzzi inside a private property, something party guests were invited to do,” he added.
One of the five photos published by El Pais shows the 72-year-old media mogul surrounded by several unidentified women -- in their clothes -- in the garden of his majestic villa in Sardinia.
Another shot features two women in string bikinis sunbathing topless, while another photo shows a naked man standing next to a woman laying next to a swimming pool. All the faces except Berlusconi's were blurred out.
“It's just not right for someone a kilometer away to interfere and start taking photos ... The right to a private life must have greater protection when important guests are present,” Berlusconi said. |
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