On 27 May 2010, Karima El Mahroug, a night club dancer born 1 November 1992 in Morocco, also known by her stage name Ruby Rubacuori ('Ruby Heartstealer') was arrested by the police in Milaneuros. Since she was not carrying any documents, the officers took her to the local police headquarters to identify and question her. Since she was under age a judge ordered the police to direct her to a shelter for juvenile offenders. After a couple of hours, while she was being questioned, Berlusconi, who was at the time in Paris, called the head of the police in Milan and pressured for her release, claiming she was the granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and that in order to avoid a diplomatic crisis, she was to be entrusted to Nicole Minetti, a local politician from Berlusconi's The People of Freedom party.[3]Following repeated telephone calls by Berlusconi to the police authorities, El Mahroug was eventually released and entrusted to the care of Nicole Minetti, but Minetti, soon after her release, let her go free again, and she left the police station with a prostitute. [4]According to a series of media reports in October 2010, Berlusconi had met El Mahroug, then 17, through Nicole Minetti. Mahroug insisted that she had not slept with the 74-year-old prime minister, but she told Italian newspapers that she attended dinner at his mansion near Milan. El Mahroug said she sat next to Berlusconi, who later took her upstairs and gave her an envelope containing €7,000. She said he also gave her jewellery. [3]In January 2011, Berlusconi was placed under criminal investigation relating to El Mahroug for allegedly having sex with an underage prostitute and for abuse of office relating to her release from detention. [5][ after being accused of the theft of three thousand Berlusconi's lawyers were quick to deny the allegations as "absurd and without foundation" and called the investigation a "serious interference with the private life of the Prime Minister without precedent in the judicial history of the country."
